THE United Kingdom government is being sued for its continued use of gloves made by Malaysian manufacturer Supermax Corporation Bhd, which is involved in forced labour allegations, reported commentary and legal news site the Jurist.

All the Citizens, a non-profit organisation, filed the suit following a government contract awarded to the latex glove manufacturer to supply the National Health Service with disposable gloves, despite forced labour allegations in Supermax factories in Malaysia.

The suit was allowed to proceed by the UK High Court on Wednesday.

The contract was awarded in December last year, just a month after the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it found at least 10 violations of the International Labour Organisation forced labour indicators in the manufacturing process in Supermax factories.

In October, the CBP issued a seize order on Supermax products at all US ports of entry following forced labour findings.

Subsequently, Supermax’s future contracts in Canada were also put on hold and later cancelled, reported the Jurist.

However, the Canadian government will allow the company to apply for future contracts.

Supermax in January told Bursa Malaysia Bhd that it is implementing a new foreign worker management plan to improve working conditions for its workers.

Supermax is accused of abusing its Nepalese workers with “inhumane working conditions… isolation, restriction of movement, withholding of wages, excessive overtime and more” based on the CBP findings, wrote the Jurist.

Other Malaysian companies – Top Glove Corporation Bhd and WRP Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd – have also been slapped with import bans by the CBP.

However, these bans have since been lifted after the US enforcement agency noted improvements in the companies’ addressing of forced labour allegations. – May 21, 2022.