Top Glove to pay RM53m to migrant workers to resolve US ban

MALAYSIAN glove maker Top Glove expects to pay about RM53 million (S$17.3 million) in remediation fees to migrant workers it employed before it implemented a new standard for ethical recruitment in January 2019.

This move comes after the US' Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unit issued two Top Glove subsidiaries with a detention order on imports, also known as a Withhold Release Order (WRO), last month.

In its bourse filing, Top Glove said that it is still finalising with the CBP the remediation fee to be paid. It made the first payment of RM4.4 million on Monday. The company said that it continues to "actively engage with the US CBP towards resolving the WRO expeditiously".

Top Glove previously disclosed the action by the US CBP in a July 16 filing, and said that it believes that the order was related to foreign labour issues, which had already been resolved save for a retrospective payment of recruitment fees by Top Glove workers to agents, without the company's knowledge. 

Shares of Top Glove closed at S$9.29 on Friday.