KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 ― New Zealand’s biggest supermarket chain Foodstuffs has pulled all disposable gloves from its shelves, as they investigate claims of alleged ‘slave-like’ working conditions within Top Glove Corp Bhd factories, a major global supplier of rubber gloves.
A report by New Zealand-based agency Newsroom today said that the move comes weeks after US authorities imposed a detention order on subsidiaries of Top Glove earlier this month, also due to the alleged exploitation of workers manning its manufacturing line.
The report claimed that the supermarket chain is also checking its current stock of gloves at its outlets to determine if their staff are using products made by the Malaysian company or its subsidiaries.
Newsroom claimed it sighted documents that proved products manufactured by Top Glove have been imported into New Zealand by local medical supplies importer Protec, whose customers include companies like Foodstuffs and even hospitals.
The report quoted Foodstuffs’ head of corporate affairs and corporate social responsibility (CSR) department Antoinette Laird who said the gloves have been pulled from their shelves and replaced for use by staff in stores.
“On investigation, one local supplier of disposable gloves has been found to import from Top Glove.
“Where this brand of disposable glove was stocked for retail sale in our stores, it has now been removed from the shelf.
“Where this brand was being used for the preparation of food in our stores, they are being replaced with an alternative brand
“Top Glove products will remain off our shelves until we are satisfied ethical standards have been met,” Laird was quoted as saying in the report.
Laird included the move had come after Foodstuffs Own Brands Ltd had become a member of the Social and Ethical Data Exchange group, which compels members to scrutinise their suppliers, international or local, to ensure they are properly registered, provide transparency on their CSR credentials, ethical standards, and audit results.
The New Zealand Health Ministry was also quoted in the report as saying that only a total of 100 gloves traceable to Top Glove has been imported into the country since April 1, where the report then pointed out how the opacity in the local supply chain there posed a challenge to determine if those within the medical and food sector have been or are using products made by the Malaysian company.
This despite the Malaysian Human Resources Ministry clarifying last week that there were no elements of forced labour in relation to the detention order enforced on Top Glove by the United State authorities.
The ministry had said this was determined through investigations conducted by a combined task force from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 and movement control order (MCO) in which the company was found to have breached standard operating procedures under the MCO, but that no violations of forced labour were found.
Top Glove however has been enjoying ballooning stock prices over the past few days, coming out as top gainers in the local stock exchange, with the latest reports pricing the company's stock at RM26.24.
