KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 2): Top Glove Corp Bhd told the UK-based news website The Guardian to strive to ensure free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough to enable readers to have a rounded perspective of the news it publishes, while taking into account the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of its reports.

In a statement on Tuesday (Sept 29), Top Glove, the world's largest rubber glove maker by production capacity, said it had taken note of The Guardian's article, dated Friday (Sept 25, 2020) titled “UK government sourcing NHS PPE from company repeatedly accused of forced labour”.

Top Glove said: "To support balanced reporting, these clarifications (in the Tuesday statement) were provided earlier to (The) Guardian, prior to the publication of the aforementioned article."

"In the meantime, Top Glove assures the (The) Guardian of its continued responsiveness to update and provide accurate and complete information in relation to its enquiries, as appropriate," Top Glove said.

On Sept 25, The Guardian, quoting Top Glove workers, reported that the UK government has been continuing to source medical gloves used as personal protective equipment (PPE) by frontline healthcare workers from a manufacturer in Malaysia repeatedly accused of forcing its workers to endure “slave-like conditions” in its factories.

The Guardian, which also quoted Professor Mahmood Bhutta, a consultant surgeon in the National Health Service (NHS) and the founder of the British Medical Association’s Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group, reported that despite the well-documented allegations of abuse, which have led the US government to ban imports of Top Glove PPE, The Guardian found that medical gloves made by the company have been recently supplied to at least one NHS hospital.

"Since April, the procurement and supply of PPE to all hospital trusts in England has been run centrally by a government supply chain, meaning the same gloves are likely to have been distributed to hospitals across the country," The Guardian reported.

Mahmood was quoted as saying he was “surprised and disturbed” that Top Glove products have continued to be supplied to the health service.

“There have been many allegations in recent months of the abuse of migrant workers in Malaysian glove factories including those of Top Glove. Are those tasked with procuring these gloves ignorant of these concerns, or just indifferent?” he said.

The Guardian reported that Top Glove said it had taken steps to improve its labour and social compliance practices since January 2019.

“Employee safety, health and wellbeing have always been of utmost importance,” Top Glove was quoted as saying in a statement.

The Guardian reported that Top Glove listed a number of steps it had taken to protect workers during the Covid-19 pandemic including maintaining social distance and checking workers’ temperature, before entering work premises.

In theSept 29 lengthy statement by Top Glove, the company claimed, among others, that it is fully compliant with Malaysia’s labour law and that Top Glove’s workers’ wages are always paid in a consistent and timely manner.

"Since January 2019, Top Glove has implemented a zero-cost recruitment policy under which the company bears all recruitment-related fees for its foreign workers," Top Glove claimed.

Top Glove said that as at Tuesday (Sept 29), the company had about 21,000 employees, while its glove production capacity stood at 85.5 billion pieces a year.

On Bursa Malaysia today, Top Glove's share price closed up 33 sen or 3.91% at RM8.76, for a market capitalisation of about RM71.26 billion.

The stock saw some 63 million shares traded.