ELECTRONICS Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider SKP Resources Bhd has completed the remediation programme across all of its subsidiaries with all its foreign workers having been fully reimbursed for all recruitment fees previously paid to recruitment intermediaries at a justifiable and reasonably calculated level.
This is stated in the final audit of auditor TÜV Rheinland Malaysia Sdn Bhd which has recently completed a comprehensive independent third-party social compliance (forced labour) audit of the company’s labour practices and operations.
Additionally, SKP has also has made considerable improvements since December 2021 with regard to working hours, overtime work processes and adequate remediation of recruitment fees at SPI Plastics Industries Sdn Bhd which was the original source of complain by independent migrant worker rights specialist Andy Hall.
More specifically, TÜV Rheinland has conducted interviews with circa 8% of SKPs total foreign workforce with translation support and foreign language interviewers allowing for foreign workers to respond easily to questions posed by the auditors in their native languages.
Workers reported during the audit several positive experiences and examples of good practice in living and working across SKP’s subsidiaries.
The final audit report by TÜV Rheinland also highlighted some minor findings regarding working hours, accommodation and effective communication. Neverthless, the audit firm’s recommendations for improvement were positively acknowledged with appropriate actions taken immediately by SKP.
TÜV Rheinland also noted that SKP has made further progress regarding the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) forced labour indicators, and taking into account these on-going efforts, established that practices by the company do not amount to systemic forced labour and are in compliance with Malaysia Labour Law.
“This whole exercise has shed light on some shortcomings of our business operations and more importantly, the significant improvements that have been made,” commented SKP’s executive director Ivan Gan Poh San.
“Specifically, all workers have now been fully reimbursed for all recruitment fees previously paid to recruitment intermediaries, and working hours and overtime issues have been addressed. Both of these issues are those which Hall constructively raised to us previously.”
Meanwhile, Hall described SKP’s openness and willingness to address issues that he highlighted during his dialogue with the company as “admirable”.
“That positive and constructive attitude to engage a ‘critical friend’ has led to where we are today,” he pointed out.
“SKP has been transparent throughout this audit process and I commend their commitment to share the full findings of this audit report with me. All social compliance audit methodologies have their strengths and weaknesses.”
Elaborating further, Hall noted that SKP has kept to its word by putting in place various action plans that will further significantly benefit the well-being of its foreign workers.
“I have importantly highlighted to SKP areas for potential industry leadership into the future, including the need to pay a living wage; always ensure decent working hours; improve accommodation further; provide more comprehensive incentives to workers; guarantee even more ethical recruitment; and to ensure more effective workplace social dialogue,” he added.
At the end of yesterday’s (June 2) trading, SKP was up 2 sen or 1.31% to RM1.55 with 3.42 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM2.42 bil. – June 3, 2022
