NHS rubber glove supplier banned by US for alleged forced labour

Malaysian company Supermax, a supplier of rubber gloves to Britain’s NHS health service, has been hit by a US customs order banning its products from the American market over allegations it uses forced labour.

US Customs and Border Protection said it had “ample evidence” that Supermax and its subsidiaries produced gloves “in violation of US trade law” and would seize its products at all ports of entry, making the company the second Malaysian rubber glove manufacturer this year to receive such a ban.

“We will continue to exclude products made by modern slavery from entering into the United States,” said Troy Miller, CBP acting commissioner.

The CBP’s decision adds to growing allegations of the mistreatment of workers in Malaysia, which is a crucial supplier of personal protective equipment to the world. Supermax has also sold large volumes of surgical gloves to the NHS, just as Malaysian glove manufactures have garnered criticism from UK politicians and activists.

Andy Hall, a workers’ rights specialist who filed the complaint with CBP, said Malaysia was “one of the worst in the world” for forced labour.

Hall said migrant workers paid high fees to get access to some Malaysian manufacturing jobs, for which they borrowed large sums. To repay these debts, they often ended up in a form of bonded labour. Workers also often received meagre salaries and worked in cramped conditions and many had not been able to freely leave their compounds since the start of the pandemic.

Supermax did not respond to requests for comment. But in a filing to the Malaysian stock exchange on Thursday, the company said it was in contact with the CPB and had “well started” efforts to improve labour conditions at its factories.

“The company wishes to inform all its stakeholders that it is taking immediate and necessary steps to address the issue expeditiously,” it added.

Supermax said in May there was no evidence of any modern slavery and human trafficking in its supply chain.

In March last year, the company made headlines in the UK when the government purchased the entire inventory of rubber gloves held by its UK subsidiary, Aurelia Gloves.

A government procurement order from the time shows a contract worth £312m awarded to Supermax.

The UK government has denied reports of forced labour at Malaysian factories. Lord Syed Kamall, parliamentary under-secretary of state for innovation at The Department of Health and Social Care, said this month there had been “no substantiated allegations of modern slavery in relation to a departmental supplier”, adding that due diligence had been carried out on all NHS suppliers.

The health department did not immediately respond to requests to comment on the CBP ban.

The move comes just over a month after CBP revoked a similar ban it had issued against the world’s largest rubber glove maker, Malaysian manufacturer Top Glove. The CBP said the company had taken action to address its concerns.

In 2019, CBP issued a similar order against imports from Malaysian glove maker WRP, which it revoked in March last year.

Like Top Glove, Supermax’s earnings have risen sharply during the pandemic, with full-year profits surging 627 per cent to RM3.81bn ($916m) in the 12 months to June 30 this year, following a 326 per cent increase a year earlier, according to data from Refinitiv.

Shares in Supermax slid on Thursday, notching losses of as much as 11.1 per cent. The company’s largest international institutional investors include BlackRock, Vanguard and Norges Bank, according to Bloomberg data.

Additional reporting by Oliver Barnes in London