Malaysians deride minister’s idea to rebrand palm oil workers as ‘specialised harvesters’

A minister says marketing palm oil plantation workers as ‘professional harvesters’ could be a way to fill chronic labour shortages

His suggestion was widely panned, with many pointing out that locals shunned the sector because of the poor pay: ‘the job title is not the issue’

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A migrant worker collects bunches of palm oil fresh fruit in Selangor in June 2022. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:36pm, 15 Mar 2024

Low wages mean Malaysia remains unlikely to fill chronic labour shortages in the key palm oil sector, despite a minister’s attempt to rebrand plantation workers as “specialised harvesters” to attract locals rather than migrant workers.

On Thursday, Plantation and Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani mooted the idea in parliament when asked about the use of mechanisation and technology in the plantation sector to mitigate its reliance on foreign labour.

Devices used to climb trees to pluck the valuable fruit – used in everything from soap to foods – were slower than humans.

“So we cannot call them plantation worker, we need to call them professional harvesters,” the minister said, adding that there needed to be a push to get local youth to “take pride” in palm oil harvesting.

Workers load harvested palm oil fruit bunches onto a truck at a plantation in Selangor, Malaysia, on January 11, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

His suggestion was widely panned by the public, with many pointing out that locals had been shying away from that sector because of the poor pay.