PETALING JAYA: Top Glove Corporation Bhd says high temperatures during the manufacture of its products prevent any possible contamination.
"The factory environment is quite warm at about 30° to 40°C and inside the oven it is 110°C," said its executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai.
He said the production line was also fully automated and hence workers - who are attired in personal protective equipment - do not handle the latex gloves directly.
Lim added that containers containing gloves that are to be shipped overseas are very hot and this was another buffer against contamination.
Top Glove is directly linked to the country's largest Covid-19 cluster – the Teratai cluster.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan had also said the Labour Department was probing Top Glove's working conditions and workers' accommodation.
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has also imposed an import ban on two Top Glove subsidiaries over allegations of forced labour, which is believed to have stemmed from claimed substandard living conditions.
On workers' living conditions, Lim said the company had been improving its workers' living quarters over the past few months after the CBP brought up the matter.
"We have invested in many more apartments by buying and renting and moving workers away from overcrowded apartments.
"We also adhered to Malaysia's new housing rules for workers," he said.
"To date, about 7,000 Top Glove employees have been tested for Covid-19, both foreigners and locals.
"From this figure, an estimated 3,000 employees tested positive," he said.
Top Glove has a workforce of about 21,000 employees, of which 11,000 are foreign workers.
Lim also said the company had paid for their workers' Covid-19 tests but would be able to claim RM150 for each employee from Socso.
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