The UK government is facing legal action over its decision to keep using a Malaysian company accused of using forced labour as a supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS.
Lawyers at the London-based law firm Wilson Solicitors have filed for a judicial review of the government’s decision to name the UK subsidiary of the Malaysian company Supermax as one of the approved suppliers in a new 6bn contract for disposable gloves for NHS workers.
Supermax has faced persistent allegations of the use of forced labour involving its migrant workforce at factories in Malaysia since 2019. In October 2021, the US banned imports from Supermax after an investigation found “ample evidence” of forced labour. Canada halted federal imports in November 2021, also due to concerns over labour abuses.
In 2019 Supermax workers claimed they had to work 30 days in a row without a day off and had paid high fees in their home countries to get the jobs. The company denied the allegations.
After the US ban, the UK government launched its own investigation into the allegations of modern slavery and forced labour concerning Supermax. But in December 2021 Supermax was named as one of the approved suppliers able to pitch for contracts under the NHS’s new “framework agreement” for the purchase of surgical gloves.
Wilson Solicitors, which is acting for a group of Supermax workers, said it had asked the NHS to reconsider its decision to continue awarding contracts to the company, arguing that...
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