World’s Largest Medical Glove Maker Shuts Factories After Workers Get Covid

The world’s largest latex medical glove maker halted production at many of its factories in Malaysia this week after a coronavirus outbreak infected more than 2,000 workers in what one activist said highlighted a history of “reckless” safety conditions.

Top Glove, which also manufactures face masks and condoms, saw record profits this year as demand for personal protective equipment skyrocketed globally during the pandemic. But the Malaysian company relies heavily on foreign labor from South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and India.

Hundreds of migrant workers were reportedly carted away on buses from factory premises late Monday night and taken to hospitals, Malaysia’s The Star newspaper reported.

At a press conference on Tuesday, director-general Noor Hisham bin Abdullah from the health ministry singled out a cluster of 1,511 cases in the Teratai district, which was linked to Top Glove factory workers. “Medical and public health assistance teams have been mobilized to the affected area to conduct prevention and control activities, including a large-scale Covid-19 screening process,” he said.

As outrage mounted, Malaysian government officials threatened to take action if labor laws were violated. “This is a matter of life and death of vulnerable workers, which must be contained now, there are no two ways about it,” human resource minister Seri M Saravanan told reporters, adding that he had visited worker hostels and found living conditions to be “appalling.”

“We are not merely sending a team to check on the conditions at Top Glove. It will be my entire Labor Department going in full force and we will ensure the employers are held responsible for worker conditions and dire action will be taken according to the law,” the minister said.

Speaking at a separate press conference, senior defence ministry official Ismail Sabri Yaakob confirmed that 1,067 new cases were linked to 28 Top Glove factories in the town of Klang, located on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur. “We have agreed to close the factories in stages to enable workers to undergo testing and quarantine,” he said. 

Malaysia is currently under a partial lockdown as it battles a resurgence of the virus, which has led to widespread criticism of the government. It has recorded nearly 60,000 coronavirus cases, and 341 deaths.

In a public statement, Top Glove reaffirmed its commitment to the health of its workforce and said it would proceed with testing and screening. “The safety and well-being of our employees and local community is our utmost priority towards containing the situation and to flatten the COVID-19 curve,” the company said, adding that their remaining facilities were operating at reduced capacity.

“Disinfection exercises at our premises and accommodation are also conducted regularly, with all the necessary precautionary measures strictly in place.” 

Labor rights defenders, however, alleged that work was still continuing despite the outbreak and was ramped up in some places to “offset” the drop in production. British labor activist Andy Hall, whose personal investigations and public findings angered the company, told VICE World News that Top Glove did not take `welfare standards of its migrant workers seriously enough even before the outbreak occurred. 

“What Top Glove claims to stand for in being an award-winning, world-class sustainable company should now be seen truthfully for what it really is: a disreputable company with an unsustainable, reckless and irresponsible management focusing on profit and production at all costs, where workers rights, safety, health and decent work are just not the priority,” Hall said. 

“It brings into question again what sustainability awards really stand for in reality for those at risk from reckless corporate behaviour and profiteering like that continually undertaken by Top Glove.” 

The company did not immediately respond to questions from VICE World News. 

A 2018 ABC investigation reported appalling accusations by employees at Top Glove who alleged abuses and unregulated labor practices. One worker compared living situations to “a prison.” The company did not directly respond to the report but told a U.S. customs body that it had “already resolved” alleged violations against migrant workers at its facilities.

It also made headlines in October when a grisly accident occured at one of its factories in the northwestern city of Ipoh, where a migrant worker lost his hand after it was caught in the rotating shafts of a machine, severing it completely at the wrist.