KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has asked plantation sector employers to offer attractive job incentive packages to woo Malaysians to work in the sector.

He said the move would also help government realise the plan to reduce foreign workers in the country.

The package, he said, must cover all aspects of congenial community living such as housing, schools, clinics, training and lucrative income.

“It’s crucial for employers to offer attractive packages to entice our people to work in the plantation sector. If there are no incentives for our locals, it will be a problem as our people are not keen to work in estates,” he told reporters after chairing the cabinet committee meeting on foreign workers.

He said the meeting also decided that employing foreign workers in all sectors should be scrutinised thoroughly to determine the actual requirement for every sector and sub-sector.

“This is because besides gradually reducing foreign workers, we don’t want sub-sector requirements to be affected to the extent of harming the country’s economic activities and outputs,” he said.

Najib said Malaysians would only be interested to work in oil palm estates if employers provide decent housing, clinics and other infrastructures needed in the current era.

He praised the move by United Plantations Bhd plantation company for providing excellent infrastructure for a congenial community living.

The company’s move had been effective in wooing up to 40 per cent of Malaysians as compared to other plantation companies, he said.

Asked whether that would be the benchmark for regulations or merely an advice, he said: “We will advise them but there are ways to try to do something more than an advice.

The deputy prime minister said there were government-linked companies (GLCs) which adopted other approaches that were effective in wooing locals to work with them.

He said the cabinet committee’s policy was also a holistic policy which took into account the roles of Malaysian workers in certain sectors.

Najib said the intended target to reduce foreign workers would be decided in the committee’s next meeting.

Asked for the main reason why locals were not keen to work in certain sectors, he said it was not only because of salary but also training.

“For example, we take in barbers from India, why not from the estates, but we need to train them,” he said.

On the planned large-scale operation to drive out illegal immigrants from Sabah, Najib said the National Security Division in the Prime Minister’s Department and enforcement agencies would decide on when to launch the exercise.

“We don’t have much problems with Indonesian foreign workers. Overall, we are satisfied with the way we manage Indonesian workers,” he added.

– Bernama