Photograph: Matthew Taylor/Rex Shutterstock
KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 – The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) last week announced its purchase of scandal-hit Shirebrook warehouse owned by Sports Direct in Derbyshire for £120m. The deal between Sports Direct and EPF-owned Kwasa Logix Sportivo will see Sports Direct taking a 15-year lease on the property.
“This investment is an opportunity for the EPF to generate an assured income stream matching our risk return profile.
“In line with EPF’s investment policies, comprehensive due diligence and robust governance standards were followed in completing the purchase of the logistics asset.
“This deal will complement and form part of the EPF’s UK real property portfolio,” EPF said.
It seems EPF will be housing a company that has been compared to a ‘gulag’, a forced-labour camp.
Shirebrook warehouse compared to ‘gulag’ or ‘Victorian workhouse’
Allegations of harassment, abuse and illegal working practices in the Derbyshire warehouse have formed a central part of the criticism leveled against the company since a Guardian exposé caused widespread outrage last year when workers described working there as a “gulag.”
In 2016, Mike Ashley, founder of Sports Direct was grilled by a Commons select committee about conditions at his sportswear chain’s warehouse.
He even admitted that staff got less than the minimum wage and were fined for being late — as he was accused of running a “gulag” labour camp.
“A woman scared of taking time off work even gave birth in the toilets, shocked MPs were told.
“Staff could be sacked for taking days off to look after sick children, chatting too much or spending too long in the toilet in a “six strikes and you’re out of work” regime.
“Workers without bank accounts had wages paid by a debit card system which cost them at least £10 a month, the hearing was told.” – The Sun
Ashley refused to invest in technology, focused on ‘cheap labor’
In November 2015, the Guardian placed two undercover reporters inside the Shirebrook warehouse, as well as speaking to scores of current and past Sports Direct workers.
The story that emerged shows Ashley refusing to increase productivity by investing in new technology. He believes productivity gains promised by the new technology are non-existent unless you know what products your warehouse will be handling years in advance.
Instead, he focuses on building a retail machine whose cogs almost entirely consist of people: cheap people, typically from eastern Europe, who understand little, if any, English.
To accommodate them, all signs and announcements inside the building are made in Polish as well as English.
The Times (UK News) indirectly compared Mike Ashley to Korea’s Kim Jong Un
“He’s the supreme leader. He’s in charge of what many regard as a rogue institution. His inner circle is packed with family members and toadies. He routinely flouts the norms of good behaviour and sticks two fingers up at his critics. He’s a relative lightweight, but has run circles around his much more powerful enemies.
“Apart from that, and a common rotundity, there is no similarity between Mike Ashley and Kim Jong-un. Mr Ashley has no nuclear missiles and doesn’t go around having people assassinated.
“But in corporate terms, the Sports Direct International founder and chief executive seems nevertheless to have been just as successful as the North Korean supreme leader…” wrote one Patrick Hosking in an opinion piece in The Times (UK)
Ashley complained to press regulator Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) about the article. While IPSO sided with him one of the complaints, they didn’t find anything wrong about the comparison to Kim Jong Un, but considered that it was a matter of comment and interpretation.
Is EPF championing worker abuse?
Housing a ‘gulag’ may be a first for EPF but investing in companies with allegations of worker abuse is nothing new with EPF.
As at 30 May 2019, EPF holds 169,495,422 shares in Top Glove, a local company with multiple allegations of worker abuse. That amount translates to over RM840 million as of today’s share price of RM5.00.
The Thomas Reuters Foundation revealed in December 2018 that migrant workers at Top Glove often work long hours to earn overtime to clear debts to recruitment agents back home and, in some cases, exceed the legal overtime limit.
Some clocked 90 – 120 hours of overtime a month, according to documents seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, above the 104 hour overtime limit stipulated by Malaysia’s labour laws.
Around the same time, The Guardian alleged Top Glove to subjecting thousands of migrant workers from Nepal and Bangladesh to exploitative working conditions.
The Guardian interviewed 16 migrant workers at the company and all 16 alleged they had their passports involuntarily held by the company and were unable to get them back on request, while reportedly “unsafe” factory conditions at Top Glove meant limbs had been lost in accidents.
The company strongly denied the allegation of confiscating passports but chose to use the term “Systematic Confiscation of Passports from Migrant” workers in its letter to stakeholder. Perhaps a systematic-confiscation is not a form of confiscation?
Interestingly, the company did not deny or confirm the allegation of ‘unsafe’ factory conditions at Top Glove where limbs had been lost in accidents, which suggest that the allegation may not be baseless.
The company admitted that excessive overtime is their main concern and in what seemed to be a staged PR exercise, Minister of Human Resource, M Kulasegaran was quick to defend Top Glove against the allegation.
“I do not deny some foreign workers are working longer than permitted under the Employment Act and we will take action. The management of Top Glove has given its commitment to overcome the problem but I can give the assurance that no foreign workers are forced to work overtime in the factories,” he said after visiting a Top Glove factory in East Meru Industrial Park here today, according to FMT
“Kulasegaran said investigations by ministry officers found all other allegations made in the report to be baseless.” the online portal reported.
Activists and NGOs have since expressed bafflement at Kulasegaran’s ‘stunts’.
Perhaps the workers were lying to Reuters and Guardian?
Employee Claimed of Unlawful Detention
In 2014 a Top Glove Employee, Dhanusuvel Nadesan, was allegedly locked up against his will by Top Glove’s auxiliary police for five days. Dhanusuvel had also alleged that there was also a Nepali worker held at the same time.
The case received wide media coverage, with Says.com summarizing it best.
Dhanusuvel was later dismissed by the company. He later filed a complain with the Industrial Court, only to be missing and not contactable at the court hearing.
Najib Razak’s appointee is still Board Member at EPF
In December 2018, NMT wrote an article suggesting that Top Glove founder and Chairman, Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai is a Najib Razak’s appointee at EPF and questioned possible conflict of interest.
Following that, the Minority Shareholders Watch Group had raised similar concerns of conflict of interest, which till today remains unanswered.
Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai still sits as Board Member of EPF, representing Malaysian employers since July 2015.
-NMT
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