Rubber gloves maker Supermax extending labour compensation to ex-employees

Kuala Lumpur – Supermax Corp. is urging former migrant employees to apply for reimbursement of fees paid to obtain employment at its gloves-making operations.

The move is under the Malaysian company’s labour-policy transformation policy, which compensates employees for any ‘recruitment fees’ to work at Supermax.

“Supermax is continuing to conduct an outreach campaign in its effort to follow up on earlier efforts implemented in Nepal and Bangladesh,” the group stated 13 April.

The aim of the programme, emphasised Supermax, is to find “every last worker who paid a recruitment fee”.

Malaysian gloves makers have recently intensified efforts to bring their labour policies in-line with the International Labour Organisation standards.

This followed a US customs agency decision to issue 'withhold release' orders, effectively banning imports of Malaysian gloves into the country.

Supermax has been subject to a US 'withhold release' order since October 2021 over “allegations of forced labour”.

Among its measures to address the issue, Supermax has implemented a “zero-cost recruitment fee” policy in 2019 and launched a remediation programme for all active workers in February last year.

The Malaysian gloves group has also established a fund with an initial allocation of RM5 million (€1 million) to remediate former workers.