The Council recommends that its observation of Supermax Corp Bhd be discontinued.
Supermax is a Malaysian company that produces rubber and latex gloves. In February 2022, the Council on Ethics recommended that Supermax be excluded from the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) due to an unacceptable risk that the company was contributing to human rights abuses. The Council’s recommendation was based on reports of extremely poor living and working conditions for migrant workers at the company’s production facilities in Malaysia. In June the same year, Norges Bank decided to place Supermax under observation.
During the observation period, Supermax reported that it has implemented measures to improve conditions for migrant workers. In September 2023, furthermore, the US authorities lifted import restrictions on Supermax’s products because the conditions that had led to the company being blacklisted due to the risk of forced labour had been rectified. This could indicate that conditions for workers at Supermax’s production facilities have improved, and that the risk of the company contributing to serious or systematic human rights abuses no longer unacceptable.
The Council on Ethics issued its recommendation on 26 June 2024. Norges Bank announced its decision to discontinue the observation on 9 October 2024.