GLOVE maker WRP Asia Pacific has suspended its business operations with immediate effect due to financial constraints, reports Malaysiakini.

The suspension comes three months after the company was banned by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency on suspicion of using forced labour.

According to the Malaysiakini, the glove maker had issued an internal circular to its employees and workers to announce its temporary suspension of business operations. 

The circular dated December 30, stated that: “Please take note that due to financial constraints faced by the company, the business operations of the company will be suspended immediately until further notice.” 

It is credited to interim liquidators Ong Hock An and Mak Chew Yin. 

On its website, WRP Asia Pacific claims to be a world leading manufacturer and exporter of premium quality glove products. 

On October 1, 2019, the CBP announced it had issued Withhold Release Orders on five different products imported from five different countries suspected of using forced labour.

These included blocking the import of disposable rubber gloves by CBP from WRP Asia Pacific as it believed the company was involved in forced labour.

A source had then said that WRP Asia Pacific was currently working with its lawyer in the US to resolve the matter.

An exporter slapped with a withhold release order can either reroute the shipment and sell its products elsewhere, or try to persuade CBP to change its mind by providing proof the goods were not manufactured in conditions that were slave-like. 

Malaysia has become the world’s glove capital, producing three out of every five pairs of gloves used in the world, according to industry data, exporting to countries like Britain and the United States. 

Last January, WRP Asia Pacific made headlines after nearly 2,000 Nepali migrant workers staged a three-day strike claiming they had not been paid three months’ wages.

The Labour Department, under the Human Resource Ministry, launched an investigation into the company and found that it had withheld the salaries of its workers, did not pay overtime, had made unfair pay cuts and had unlawful working hours during breaks and public holidays. – January 1, 2020.