Top Glove to offer more employment, create new jobs amid business closures, says chairman
09 Sep 2021
Top Glove Corp Bhd is looking to offer more employment and create new jobs for individuals within and outside the organisation amid pandemic-driven business closures and job losses.
In a post-Merdeka note on the glove maker’s website on Sept 3, its founder and executive chairman Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai said the coronavirus had caused families across the globe to endure suffering “like never before, caused not only by the pandemic itself but its impact on economies”.
“While governments are doing everything they can to respond effectively, it is now more important than ever for us, as a society, to find every means to offer the chance to recover lost dignity in individuals, communities and societies by way of providing employment and creating new jobs, and also by making it more conducive for businesses to operate in the midst of a pandemic.
“We do this to ensure that as a business, we are at the forefront of contributing to the economy and the betterment of societies across the world,” he said.
He added that the freedom Malaysians celebrate is a gift that must be treasured and valued.
“From a business perspective, freedom has to mean freeing people from poverty and subservience. Freedom has to include building a society that not only thrives, but one that actively contributes to the betterment of humanity globally.
“This includes building markets and companies that can provide employment for people from all walks of [life]. By creating and giving employment, we are offering people dignity and self-sufficiency. We are according people the ability to live as dignified human beings. When a person feels dignified and valued, they can achieve wonders no matter which level of employment they are at.
“A society becomes healthy when its citizens and residents are not dependent on the state to provide them with a source of living and livelihood. The freedom in this era of new economy and new normal is ensuring healthy living and meaningful employment, enabling economies to create jobs and ease of doing businesses,” he said.
The glove maker, which came under intense flak last year for various environmental, social and governance issues, namely for its alleged lack of workers welfare across its plants, had in April announced that it had resolved all 11 International Labour Organisation (ILO) forced labour indicators that include retention of work documents, excessive overtime, and abusive working and living conditions.
On another matter, it had recently denied any link or relationship with Top Glove Investment.
The latter was previously flagged as a possible clone of the glove manufacturing group by the Securities Commission Malaysia.
In a notice on its website, the group said it also does not have any link to any investment programme or trading platform for investments.
At midday break, shares of Top Glove stood at RM3.43 after slipping 4.2% from yesterday’s close of RM3.58 and tumbling 64.27% from a 12-month peak of RM9.60 on Oct 20, 2020, to give the company a market capitalisation of RM28.15 billion.
Source: The Edge Markets
