This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 15, 2020 - January 21, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: Glove manufacturer WRP Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd has denied allegations that it had restricted its employees’ movements.

This comes after workers from WRP’s factory went on a strike over delayed payments and for allegedly restricting their movements.

WRP’s board of directors, in a statement issued via its lawyer Matthew Thomas Philip yesterday, said it will commence investigations into the allegations.

“The board of directors of WRP Asia Pacific has not at any point in time, instructed or authorised any of its representatives to restrict the movements of employees.

“Since this morning, the board of directors and their representatives have been in the company’s premises to settle some 2,000 of WRP’s employees’ wages,” the statement said.

The glove maker was in the news after its rubber gloves were banned by the US Customs and Border Protection agency on Sept 30 last year on purported grounds that they were made with forced labour.

Three months after the ban announcement, WRP suspended operations with immediate effect citing financial constraints.

Earlier last year, WRP also made headlines after nearly 2,000 Nepali migrant workers staged a three-day strike claiming they were not paid three months’ worth of wages.

The Labour Department subsequently launched an investigation into the company and found it had withheld workers’ salaries, did not pay overtime, made unfair pay cuts and had wrongful working hours during breaks and public holidays.

Interestingly, the company initiated legal action earlier this month against its former managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Lee Son Hong.