00KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 6): Top Glove is set to pay about US$40 million (RM166 million) to its migrant workers, a US news portal reported.
The sum is substantially higher than the estimate of RM56 million that Top Glove revealed earlier.
Los Angeles Times cited company documents as saying the rubber glove maker will pay workers from Nepal about US$1,500 and workers from Bangladesh about US$4,800 to cover fees they paid to recruitment agencies in their respective home countries.
The payments for more than 10,000 foreign workers amount to roughly US$40 million, Los Angeles Times reported.
Top Glove declined to comment on the matter when contacted.
In July, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) slapped a ban on imports from two subsidiaries of Top Glove over forced labour concerns. The ban came at a time when the demand for gloves spiked amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Top Glove’s initial timeline was to resolve the issue by end-August. However, the ban imposed by the CBP has yet to be lifted.
The North American market accounts for about 27% of Top Glove’s total exports last year.
Top Glove said it is still finalising the total remediation fee to its foreign workers with the CBP, which is estimated at RM53 million.
“The total remediation fee to be paid is estimated at RM53 million, subject to finalisation with the CBP,” the gloves maker told the stock exchange. The group stressed that it will continue to actively engage with the CBP towards resolving the Withhold Release Order (WRO) expeditiously.
Top Glove also highlighted that it has paid the first remediation payment of RM4.4 million to migrant workers who joined the group prior to the implementation of its Zero Cost Recruitment Policy in January 2019.
Despite the ban from exporting to the US, Top Glove achieved its best-ever quarterly net profit at RM1.29 billion in the fourth quarter ended Aug 31, 2020 (4QFY20), which is almost 18 times the RM74.17 million posted a year ago.
Its quarterly revenue surged 161.5% to RM3.11 billion from RM1.19 billion in 4QFY19.
For the cumulative 12-month period of FY20, its net profit soared 412% to RM1.87 billion, from RM364.68 million last year, while revenue rose 50.72% to RM7.24 billion from RM4.8 billion.
Top Glove’s share price reversed its upward trend today, it was down 17 sen to RM8.75 in the morning trading session, bringing its market capitalization to RM71.61 billion.
Read also:
Top Glove expects to resolve US import ban issue by year end
Top Glove still resolving US ban, remediation fee now at RM53m
Top Glove confirms US detention order on gloves manufactured by subsidiaries
