Picket Ansell

End modern slavery



JOIN THE PICKET:
1pm, Friday 29 May 2026
at Ansell headquarters
678 Victoria St, Richmond 3101 / ‘australia’


MediCeram workers protest their treatment by the Ansell subcontractor



What’s the issue?

  • Malaysian company MediCeram has been accused of exploiting migrant workers in modern slavery-like conditions since 2017 — including recruiting workers through human trafficking syndicates, withholding wages and passports, obstructing work visas, charging enormous recruitment fees and threatening arrest and deportation
  • These allegations are widely upheld and acknowledged by media investigations, international labour bodies and UN agencies
  • Australian company Ansell contracted MediCeram to produce glove molds, knowingly and repeatedly ignoring egregious labour violations in order to maximise their profits despite a lack of basic protections for workers
  • After intimidating and firing workers who organised to resist their conditions, MediCeram collapsed — leaving workers with no recourse for their unpaid entitlements, compensation and justice


Who’s involved?

  • MediCeram management oversaw and enforced systematic worker exploitation and intimidation
  • Ansell profited from unethical labour practices while distancing itself from the workers’ plight — and not for the first time
  • Exploited workers denied basic rights and protections
  • You! As a person who uses, distributes, sells or receives services that use Ansell products, you have the ability to apply pressure on Ansell to deliver justice to the workers

Why should I care?

  • Workers are our comrades, and we must not accept modern slavery anywhere. Improvements to our quality of life come at the expense of their exploitation for maximum profit by western industrialists
  • The predicament of these workers is both a labour rights and human rights issue
  • If big business gets away with these crimes, they will commit more of them
  • Your purchases may have funded these practices. We have the power to stop them


What can I do?

  • Attend the regular picket and disrupt Ansell’s business
  • Contact Ansell to demand accountability and fair compensation
  • Help us organise toward a picket of Ansell’s AGM in October
  • Next time you’re pulling on a pair of gloves – share what you know!





More information


MediCeram, a key supplier of glove molds to the Australia-based international corporation Ansell, has gone bankrupt — after years of putting its workers through conditions that amount to modern slavery.

According to MediCeram worker leader Nahid: 

‘Ansell had an obligation to regularly monitor working conditions, wages, visa status, accommodation, and human rights practices within its supplier facilities. However, in reality, serious violations such as passport confiscation, forced labor, mental abuse, wage withholding, illegal repatriation, even after the death of a worker, continued for an extended period at MediCeram without effective intervention.’

We are picketing not just for the MediCeram workers, but all the workers that Ansell enslaves and exploit in their supply lines in Southeast Asia. We do not stop until modern slavery stops. 

Healthcare and manufacturing workers, who wear Ansell’s gloves: demand that your employers provide you with PPE not made through slavery! 

Supermarket workers, who sell Ansell’s gloves: demand that your employers stop stocking blood-stained gloves! 

All workers and activists in Naarm Melbourne who reject modern slavery and stand with migrants and workers in Southeast Asia: 

Picket Ansell headquarters once again on the 29th of May! Organise together to shut down the slaveholder AGM in October!
 At last month’s picket outside Ansell, the Mediceram workers, attending via a live call, made the following demands: 

  1. ⁠All workers who have already returned to Bangladesh must be compensated quickly, so that the workers can return to normal life as soon as possible.
  2. ⁠Ansell must announce and implement the specific date of compensation within one week.
  3. ⁠Ansell must give a written guarantee to permanently stop MediCeram’s fraudulent activities. It is through their co-operation that Ansell and MediCeram have jointly tortured the workers.
  4. ⁠Ansell and MediCeram must jointly pay compensation for all harassment suffered by the workers within one week.
  5. ⁠Ansell must accept responsibility for violating the rights of the workers and be held accountable.

Ansell has not met the workers’ demands. We will be protesting in Dhaka and picketing their Melbourne headquarters.






Our activities take place on Aboriginal land. We acknowledge that Indigenous sovereignty was never ceded, and stand firmly in solidarity with First Nations people against dispossession and genocide.

We participate in actions according to the cultural protocols of local Aboriginal people – most often, Kulin Nations people – to the best of our knowledge and abilities.