Ex-Workers In Malaysia Sue Kimberly-Clark, Ansell Over Labor Issues

Migrant workers at Malaysian glove maker Brightway Holdings filed a lawsuit in the United States against Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Ansell Ltd., accusing them of "knowingly profiting" from the alleged use of forced labor at the supplier, according to the complaint seen by Reuters.

Photo Insert: The workers paid high recruitment fees to middlemen, worked long hours with few or no rest days, and had their passports taken by the company.

In the suit, filed late on Tuesday, 13 former workers claimed damages from US personal care company Kimberly-Clark and Australian personal protective equipment supplier Ansell in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.

The workers paid high recruitment fees to middlemen, worked long hours with few or no rest days, and had their passports taken by the company.

The complaint says public reports on Brightway and other Malaysian glove makers, and violations found by labor audits were evidence of the two companies' knowledge of the alleged abuses.

"These companies cannot deny that they had knowledge of forced labor at Brightway," said Terrence Collingsworth, a lawyer from International Rights Advocates representing the workers.

Collingsworth said that before filing the lawsuit, he had proposed mediation with Kimberly-Clark and Ansell to obtain compensation for the workers, but both companies declined.

The US banned Brightway products from entering the country in December 2021 over suspected forced labor abuses, saying it had found 10 of 11 International Labor Organization (ILO) indicators of forced labor.

Allegations of misconduct at Brightway had been public for at least a year before that. In December 2020, Malaysian officials found Brightway workers living in shipping containers, and a minister, after a raid, likened the squalid conditions to "modern slavery."

Reuters reported in May 2021 that labor audits of Brightway had detailed 61 violations of global ethical standards and 50 violations of Malaysian labor laws, even though the auditors concluded that they did not find forced labor.

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