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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Coronavirus boom for Malaysia’s rubber glove industry loses shine amid worker rights abuses

  • The pandemic has sent demand for rubber gloves rocketing, giving a boon to both firms such as Top Glove and the wider Malaysian economy
  • But as investors point the finger over workers’ living conditions, experts say action is needed to keep ahead of competitors in China and Southeast Asia

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A worker at a Top Glove factory outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: Reuters
Tashny Sukumaran
Even as the coronavirus pandemic propels profits in Malaysia’s burgeoning rubber glove industry to new heights, widespread accusations of forced labour amid increasing competition from China and Thailand have left it facing an ultimatum: change or be changed.
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Malaysia produces about 65 per cent of the world’s supply of rubber gloves and the coronavirus-induced boom has had a transformative effect on the nation’s rubber industry – the world’s fifth or sixth largest – as a whole. Its share of GDP went from 0.6 per cent in 2019 to about 1 per cent in 2020, while its value-added output in the first three quarters of 2020 hit 8.9 billion ringgit (US$2.2 billion), more than the whole of the previous year.

The glove maker’s success has therefore raised their importance to a nation navigating an economic slump brought on by the pandemic and its accompanying lockdowns. In 2020, the Malaysian economy contracted 4.5 per cent.

However, claims of labour abuses at glove manufacturers have caused concerns among international investors and with rivals such as China, Indonesia and Thailand hoping to steal a march on the industry leader, observers say these must be addressed if Malaysia is to retain its edge.
The warnings come amid a string of embarrassing headlines for Malaysian glove makers. In particular, Top Glove Corporation – the world’s largest glove manufacturer – has faced repeated claims that it provides its employees unsafe working and living conditions. In July, the United States banned two of its units over forced labour allegations, while Malaysian authorities plan to charge the firm over poor worker accommodation.
Top Glove product Top Mask on display at its headquarters in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Photo: Reuters
Top Glove product Top Mask on display at its headquarters in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Photo: Reuters
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Matters were made worse when a coronavirus outbreak at one of the firm’s manufacturing complexes last year infected more than 5,000 foreign workers, killing one. Top Glove responded by dismissing a whistle-blower who revealed that social distancing measures were not being implemented, prompting the US investor BlackRock, Top Glove’s tenth biggest shareholder with 1.07 per cent of its shares, to call for the removal of its board of directors. While another investor, a Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, also voted against the board, it was re-elected. Top Glove has also faced fire from the Malaysian government. Human Resources Minister M Saravanan, who initially defended the corporation, had a change of heart after touring its worker accommodation, describing the conditions as a “matter of life and death of vulnerable workers”.

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