YTY disappointed with US decision to bar its gloves, says compliant with ILO requirements

PETALING JAYA: Glove manufacturer YTY Group has expressed its disappointment against the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency's decision to bar disposable gloves allegedly “produced with forced labour” by the company from entering the United States.

YTY Group clarified that it has complied with International Labour Organisation (ILO) requirements and provided the CBP with a comprehensive progress report on its social compliance standing.

YTY Social Compliance and Corporate Governance head Harinder Kaur said they had recently gained compliance with all eleven of the ILO forced labour indicators.

“Separately, over the past three years, we have had various of our Malaysian manufacturing operations audited against established social compliance audit frameworks, with excellent conclusions,” she said.

Harinder said the group was open to communication with the CBP, but noted that up until the CBP notice, there had not been any engagement from CBP related to any area of concern.

YTY chief executive officer Vikram Hora said the company will make efforts to engage with CBP and other relevant stakeholders to demonstrate that its manufacturing operations are devoid of any forced labour practices.

“This is also to reaffirm ongoing social compliance advancements and our unwavering commitment to preserve the rights and liberties of all our employees,” it said.

The CBP had, on Saturday (Jan 29), issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against YTY Group “based on information that reasonably indicates the use of forced labour in YTY Group’s manufacturing operations”.

“Effective today (Jan 29), US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and import specialists at all US ports of entry will detain disposable gloves produced in Malaysia by YTY Industry Holdings Sdn Bhd (YTY Group), including YTY Industry Sdn Bhd, Green Prospect Sdn Bhd, and GP Lumut," it said.

CBP said that it identified seven of the ILO’s eleven indicators of forced labor during its investigation - abuse of vulnerability, deception, retention of identity documents, intimidation and threats, debt bondage, abusive working and living conditions, and excessive overtime.

The CBP added that it was also barring the entry of palm oil and merchandise containing palm oil traceable to the Malaysian company Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (Sime Darby), including its subsidiaries and joint ventures.