Worker Accuses Top Glove Of Lax Covid 19 Measures

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A photograph supplied to FMT said to show workers on board the bus to the Top Glove factory.PETALING JAYA: A factory worker at Top Glove has alleged social distancing and other Covid-19 safety measures are not being followed by the company, based in Klang
The man, a 31-year-old Nepali, provided FMT with several videos and photographs of workers in close quarters at the packing department, hostel and on factory buses
However, his claims were denied by a spokesman for Top Glove, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of nitrile and latex medical gloves
FMT has contacted Labour Department director-general Mohd Jeffrey Joakim for comment
The company has 44 factories and 18,000 employees across the world. Orders for its gloves have more than doubled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company’s share price has risen from RM4.58 in mid-January to RM6.80 at the close of trading on Friday. The company reported net income of RM115 million from revenue of RM1.2 billion in its quarterly earnings report.The worker who spoke to FMT said: “We are working in the same conditions as before Covid-19. The work place is crowded. The company tells us to follow social distancing but I don’t see that being implemented. Buses are also not being sanitised
“Local workers return home every day and we don’t know where they go and who they meet. Getting infected by them is our biggest fear.”He said temperature checks were now mandatory but other measures such as screening for symptoms of Covid-19 and sanitising workers’ transport, was not being taken
Top Glove’s representative denied the claims, saying that “social distancing is one of the several measures” implemented at their factories, canteens, workers rest areas, offices and workstations in tandem with ongoing awareness programmes to remind employees to adhere to these measures
Daily temperature checks were taken before workers entered the premises, facemasks and other personal protective equipment were provided, the company said. All premises were also regularly disinfected
This photograph, also supplied to FMT, is said to show workers at the rest area of the Top Glove factory.“We also continue to adhere to all guidelines and compliance directives as required by the authorities,” the representative said
“Ideally, we would want to enable all our people to stay at home and work from home every day during this period. However, as the world’s largest manufacturer of gloves, we are mindful of our responsibility to continue operating,” the company said, noting that it was committed to continue working safely during this critical period
On Thursday, International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said such measures were mandatory for companies seeking to resume operations, warning that failure to comply was a criminal offence
Migrant worker activist Andy Hall said workers had been sending “sensitive footage” from inside some of the leading glove factories in Malaysia, showing that social distancing was not being effectively implemented
The videos showed entrance and exit areas, the labour-intensive packing departments and were also taken on buses from the workers’ hostels to the workplace, Hall said
He said the factories would not be able to operate at full capacity if they practised social distancing at the work place. He said there were 30,000 migrant workers producing the estimated 200 billion gloves exported each year from Malaysia. - FMT

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