KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — Police are currently investigating glove manufacturer Top Glove over the shifting of 1,606 of its factory workers from their Westlite hostel in Petaling Jaya into hotels before a targeted enhanced movement control order (TEMCO) at the hostel.
Selangor police chief CP Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed in a press conference today said there were two related issues to Top Glove, namely the shifting of the 1,600-odd factory workers and the alleged continued operations of its factories.
“The police have raised this matter to be discussed with the district officer that is also the chairman of the district disaster committee.
“As a result of the discussions, the district officer had through the Health Ministry and the local authority issued orders for closure. That factory’s operations were stopped immediately,” he said.
“At the same time, we are also investigating that company and we have opened investigation papers under Section 270 of the Penal Code over their actions in bringing workers from the initial hostel to several hotels,” he said.
He added that the police have identified eight hotels where the Top Glove workers were transferred to, adding that the police have determined that they currently cannot leave the eight hotels.
He said Covid-19 screenings have been carried out on all 1,606 workers, with test results currently pending.
Section 270 covers the offence of malignantly doing an action that is likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life, and is punishable with a jail term of up to two years or fine or both.
In the same press conference, he said that Selangor police inspected 7,922 premises in Selangor under Ops Patuh up to July 8, with most of them being factories and business premises.
Under the same Ops Patuh, he said Selangor police have so far issued 266 offers to compound offences by paying fines.
For factories, he said the most common offences found were not complying with standard operating procedures such as not wearing face masks, not registering their attendance in premises and conducting manufacturing activities without approval or carrying out activities that are different from the approval given by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry for essential activities.
As a whole, he said the compliance level to SOPs in Selangor is at around 90 per cent to 92 per cent, but noted that the remaining eight per cent would amount to a big figure in Selangor.
In Selangor, police have since the start of the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) from July 3 issued 1,045 notices to individuals to offer to compound offences, with the top three offences being related to the wearing of face masks, failure to observe physical distancing and also not checking in with MySejahtera.
