Prime Glove has seen surging demand because the begin of the coronavirus. (File)
Kuala Lumpur:
The US has banned the import of surgical gloves from two subsidiaries of Malaysia’s Prime Glove — the world’s greatest producer of the product — over pressured labour issues, regardless of hovering demand in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
Nations worldwide have been scrambling to fill up on protecting gear, from gloves to faces masks, because the pandemic started earlier this 12 months.
However Malaysia’s Prime Glove stated Thursday the ban impacts about half of its gross sales to the USA.
US Customs and Border Safety confirmed a ban on the 2 subsidiaries’ merchandise getting into the nation, with out providing particulars. Nonetheless, the ban was imposed by means of a “withhold launch order”, which is expounded to pressured labour issues.
Malaysia is the world’s greatest provider of rubber gloves however the business has lengthy confronted allegations of mistreating its workforce, who’re primarily low-paid migrants.
Prime Glove beforehand confronted allegations in media stories that its staff labored in exploitative circumstances, however insists it has labored arduous to resolve any issues.
The corporate stated it wanted to contact US officers to search out out why the ban was imposed, however it could relate to the difficulty of charges paid by overseas employees to employment brokers.
Migrant employees typically pay massive sums to safe jobs in Malaysia however activists have lengthy complained concerning the follow.
Prime Glove stated it had been overlaying all recruitment charges since January 2019 however it nonetheless wanted to return charges to employees paid earlier than then.
“Over the previous few months, we now have been engaged on this problem which entails in depth tracing, to determine the right amount to be paid again to our employees,” stated an organization assertion.
The agency stated it hoped to get the ban lifted inside two weeks. Its shares slipped 2.5 p.c following the information.
One other Malaysian glove maker, WRP, was hit with a US ban final 12 months however it was lifted in March.
Prime Glove, which might produce greater than 70 billion gloves a 12 months, has seen surging demand because the begin of the coronavirus pandemic.
The US is the hardest-hit nation on the earth, with greater than 137,000 COVID-19 deaths and practically three.5 million infections, in response to a Johns Hopkins College tracker.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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