MALAYSIAN glove makers must come out in the open to refute the latest findings by a partnership led by UK’s Newcastle University that exploitation of medical glove industry workers has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The damning study which was carried out for the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC) claimed to have surveyed nearly 1,500 mainly migrant workers in Malaysia’s medical gloves factories.
Additionally, it also interviewed players from the whole medical glove supply chain, including workers and manufacturers in Malaysia, government officials, suppliers and procurement managers in the UK.
Malaysia supplies the majority of medical gloves used by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the single biggest purchaser of gloves in the world.
The research used the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) forced labour indicators to develop a full picture of exploitative conditions that have been reported to be present in the industry for a long time.
It found that the industry’s unprecedented increase in demand has not translated to the improvement of conditions for migrant workers. Due to the freeze in recruitment from overseas caused by the COVID-19-related restrictions, the pressure to fulfil the orders was shifted to the workers already employed in Malaysia.
Four out of 11 forced labour indicators have worsened, including rising restriction on movement, isolation, abusive working and living conditions and excessive overtime, according to the findings.
Others such as abuse of vulnerability, deception, physical and sexual violence, intimidation and retention of identity documents have remained at as high levels as before the pandemic.
“There have been many media reports on this issue, but this study is the first to paint such a comprehensive picture of conditions workers faced during the pandemic,” noted Modern Slavery PEC communications director Jakub Sobik.
“This provides robust evidence that exploitative practices are commonplace in the manufacture of a product that is so close to many of us.”
The survey further revealed that deception and abuse of the positions of vulnerability was commonly reported, particularly in the context of Malaysian work permit rules, tying workers to particular employers and requiring them to serve three years of a contract unless they pay their way out.
Nearly half of surveyed workers reported feeling unable to leave their employment due to contractual or other restrictions.
One of the key reasons the workers find themselves in this situation is debt bondage caused by the charging of recruitment fees which then they have to pay off during their contract.
Some 85% of workers reported paying fees – with 43% of workers reported taking out a loan to cover the costs averaging over US$2,000 which took nearly a year on average to repay.
Moreover, nearly a third reported that their recruitment agency threatened them to not speak about being charged the fees. – July 2, 2021
