TOP GLOVE ENSURES NO DEBT BONDAGE AMONG FOREIGN WORKERS

Zero Cost Recruitment Policy was in place since January 2019

Shah Alam, Monday, 13 July 2020 Top Glove Corporation Bhd, the world’s largest manufacturer of gloves has today asserted that its foreign workers are free from debt bondage since the implementation of its Zero Cost Recruitment Policy in January 2019. 

Under the aforementioned Policy, Top Glove bears all recruitment-related fees for its foreign workers. The policy also stipulates that Top Glove will conduct pre-departure orientations and interviews at the source country, post-arrival orientations in Malaysia, as well as monthly interviews with workers towards ascertaining they have not paid any hidden fees to recruitment agents. Workers who have paid recruitment fees to agents in their source country will be reimbursed accordingly by Top Glove.

Top Glove has been continuously raising awareness among workers and recruitment agents on its firm stand on and zero tolerance towards debt bondage. In addition to conducting predeparture orientations and interviews, workers are also required to sign a Letter of Undertaking committing that they must not pay recruitment fees.

Top Glove only works with ethical and socially responsible recruitment agents, to which end it has implemented a robust due diligence procedure (encompassing checks on business background, practices and processes) to ensure potential agencies fully comply with Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audits (SMETA) or the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) code of conduct, as well as applicable local laws and regulations. Unethical agents are blacklisted and all business dealings with them are terminated immediately.

Town halls are also conducted with recruitment agents to brief them on the Company’s social compliance expectations, followed by audits to ensure recruitment agents are in full adherence to requirements.

“Guided by our policy, the Top Glove Human Rights and Ethical Conduct, we respect human rights and are committed to adhering to internationally recognised standards in our social compliance practices”, said Mr. William Yap, General Manager of Human Resources, Top Glove Corporation Bhd.

“We are committed to adhering to internationally recognised standards in our social compliance practices and since January 2019 have attended to more than 100 international external audits at Top Glove’s factories. The positive improvement from the audit results reflect excellent progress in our social compliance, where concentrated efforts were made to enhance our labour practices comprehensively to meet stringent international requirements. We will continue to level up our initiatives in this area to be in line with best practices”, he continued.

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About Top Glove Corporation Bhd

Top Glove Corporation Bhd is listed on the Bursa Malaysia Stock Exchange Main Board and Singapore Exchange Mainboard. It is also one of the component stocks of the MSCI Global Standard Index, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index, FBM Top 100 Index, FBM Emas Index, FBM Hijrah Shariah Index, FBM Emas Shariah Index, FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for Emerging Markets. Top Glove is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of gloves with an established corporate culture and good business direction of producing consistently high quality, cost efficient gloves. Top Glove has over 2,000 customers worldwide and exports to more than 195 countries.

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