The withhold release order on disposable gloves manufactured by Top Glove Sdn Bhd and TG Medical Sdn Bhd stem from charges that they were produced through forced labour, an allegation the company has been quick to deny.

“There is a possibility that this (withhold release order) may be related to foreign labour issues which we have already resolved, save for one more issue regarding the retrospective payment of recruitment fees by our workers to agents prior to January 2019 without our knowledge,” it said in a statement.

“However, Top Glove has already been bearing all recruitment fees since January 2019 when our zero recruitment fee policy was implemented.”

Top Glove also said it had been working on reimbursing foreign worker recruitment fees over the past few months, with extensive tracing in place to determine the correct amount to be given to workers on behalf of the previous agents.

It said the total cost of such reimbursements was between RM20 million and RM50 million.

Another leading Malaysian glove manufacturer, WRP Asia Pacific, was also put on the CBP withhold release order list last September after charges that its gloves were produced through forced labour.

The ban was lifted in March based on information obtained by CBP showing that the company was no longer producing its rubber gloves under forced labour conditions.

In January, then-human resources minister M Kula Segaran warned that certain companies would be unable to export their products to the US if they did not work on eliminating forced labour.

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