Another Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) manufacturer, The Brightway Group, has been sanctioned by the US Government over forced labour allegations.
Allegations
The Malaysian Labour Department reported in December 2020 that factory workers had been living in squalid conditions inside shipping containers. They also reported various forms of bonded labour, abusive treatment of whistle-blowers, and physical abuse of workers engaged in industrial action. [1]
On 20th December 2021,the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) banned all imports from The Brightway Group, based on reasonable evidence of forced labour.
Linked Companies
The US customs order prohibits imports from these three wholly owned subsidiaries of The Brightway Group:
- Brightway Holdings Sdn Bhd
- Laglove (M) Sdn Bhd
- Biopro (M) Sdn Bhd [2]
Our research indicates that the following companies have received shipments from The Brightway Group (or one ofits subsidiaries) in the previous three years:
- Kimberly Clark C/O KCP
- Protective Industrial Products
- Infitec, Inc.
- Shield Technology Ltd.
- Primary Products Co.
- Summit Glove Inc. [3]
The Brightway Group has supplied latex gloves to both the Australian personal protection firm Ansell and the US personal care giant Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KCC). KCC sells its products in over 150 countries, and owns globally recognised brands including Kleenex and Andrex. [4]
We also found these UK based companies are currently selling gloves made by Brightway:
- Decor Express [5]
- MP Morgan [6]
Recommended Action
The CBP has imposed sanctions against six Malaysian single-use glove manufacturers in the past two years. Malaysia is the world’s leading producer of rubber gloves; however, its latex sector has systemic modern slavery issues. The problem has only become worse as the global rush for PPE through the Covid-19 pandemic has led to rapidly assembled, unstable supply chains.
We also consider Chinese manufactured PPE to be high-risk and have outlined specific manufactures of concern in our previous article.
We strongly encourage companies to review their supply chains for the organisations we have listed. All PPE should be treated as having a high modern slavery risk and prioritised for assessment as part of your company’s modern slavery due diligence.
References
[1] Reuters
[3] Import Genius
[4] Kimberly-Clark
[5] Decor Express
[6] MP Morgan
