KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 10): FGV Holdings Bhd said it has made good progress in its efforts to modify the Withhold Release Order issued by the US Customs and Border Protection.

In a statement on its website on Wednesday, FGV said that to date, a total of RM72.2 million has been reimbursed to 19,673 migrant workers.

The plantation group said it has allocated a total of RM112 million to reimburse recruitment fees to its migrant workers, including former migrant workers.

It said the reimbursements to workers were made in three tranches that were paid in March, June, and September 2023.

FGV said it has given top priority to implement a remediation plan to uphold labour rights and address any gaps in its labour practices.

A key component of FGV’s remediation programme is the reimbursement of recruitment fees imposed on its migrant workers by third-party recruitment agencies.

FGV said it is also implementing a reimbursement programme for its former migrant workers who are eligible to receive recruitment fee reimbursements from FGV.

It said with the support of accreditation firm LRQA, FGV is reaching out to its former workers to inform them about the reimbursement programme which is published periodically on FGV’s social media accounts as well as in local newspapers in the workers’ countries of origin.

It said the former worker reimbursement programme will be carried out until the end of 2024.

To date, FGV said it has reimbursed 415 of its former workers amounting to RM1.77 million.

FGV group chief executive officer Datuk Nazrul Mansor said the group is fully committed to the principle of ‘no recruitment fee for workers’.

“We have made every effort towards ensuring that our recruitment procedures are aligned with ethical recruitment standards,” he said.

He said FGV has also strengthened its procedures for the recruitment of migrant workers by instituting additional measures, including engaging LRQA to conduct surveys among the newly recruited workers to ascertain if they had paid any recruitment fees.

At the time of writing, FGV was unchanged at RM1.41 with 10,300 shares traded.