The world’s largest disposable glove company, whose sales to the U.S. have been restricted over allegations of forced labor, will pay tens of millions of dollars in additional reimbursements to migrant workers who were recruited unethically, company documents show.
The Malaysian manufacturer Top Glove will pay workers from Nepal about $1,500 and workers from Bangladesh about $4,800 to cover fees they paid to recruitment agencies in their home countries, according to letters distributed to employees in recent days. The mandatory recruitment fees are seen as unethical because they trap impoverished workers in debt even before they begin their employment.
The reimbursements — to employees who represent the bulk of Top Glove’s more than 10,000 foreign workers — amount to a repayment package of roughly $40 million, a labor rights activist said Monday. That would represent an industry record and three and a half times more than what the company initially promised.
