CBP Forced Labor Efforts Starting to Bear Fruit, Change Industry Practices, NGO Official Says

The flurry of forced labor investigations and withhold release orders from CBP in recent years is starting to have an impact in countries with reported violations, in particular in Malaysia, Sarah Bessell, deputy director of Washington, D.C.-based The Human Trafficking Legal Center, said during an online panel discussion at CBP’s Virtual Trade Week on Sept. 9.

After CBP issued a WRO against Malaysian disposable glove manufacturer Top Glove in July (see 2007150032), the company announced it would move quickly to remedy well-documented forced labor issues, including a system of debt bondage whereby employees must work to pay off recruitment fees in the thousands of dollars. Other issues in the rubber glove industry include wage theft, delays in overtime pay, illegal salary deductions and substandard living conditions.

In August, Top Glove agreed to refund $12 million in recruitment fees it had received from its workers, Bessell said. The company also appears to be addressing other labor abuses, such as improving housing for its workers. Top Glove recently announced it has submitted an independent audit report to CBP (see 2009080041), though later in her remarks Bessell, speaking generally rather than about Top Glove in particular, expressed skepticism about the “audit-industrial complex.”

Malaysian industry and the country’s government are also reportedly reassessing systemic issues like excessive recruiting fees and debt bondage that previously had been considered part of the normal course of doing business, Bessell said. The Malaysian government is also reportedly auditing Top Glove’s recruiting system, and implementing a national electronic wage monitoring system. “Should these come to fruition, this has the potential to be real change,” Bessell said.