The Human Resource Ministry is urging the Employees Provident Fund Board Staff Union that threatened to picket next month over salary adjustment, to discuss its grouses with the ministry first.

Human Resource Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn said today that pickets are not desirable, especially at a time when the country is facing economic difficulties.

On Monday, the union said it will stage a three-day picket beginning Sept 4 if the Finance Ministry does not backdate their salary adjustment to January 1998.

Fong explained that although the EPF is not in his charge, he is still responsible for the union.

"If there is something which is not satisfactory, I will ask my officers to meet the unionists. I will personally meet them as well so that I can understand their requests and needs, and convey them to the relevant authorities," he said, adding that he will arrange for a meeting soon.

We have to unify our effort to maintain industrial peace so our nation can face the challenges ahead, he added.

The minister was speaking to reporters after his weekly post-cabinet meeting with ministry top officials in Kuala Lumpur.

Yesterday, newspapers quoted the union's secretary Shahril Azman Abu as saying that the finance ministry had two weeks to reply to its request.

"If the picketing does not settle the issue, the union members will work to rule," he had warned.

The request submitted last September was acknowledged by the EPF board on April 16 and was forwarded to the finance ministry three days later.

According to Shahril, the union was unhappy with the finance ministry's decision to implement the salary adjustment from last year, although the EPF board had recommended the backdating.

'Experts' return

Meanwhile, at the same press conference, Fong said that some 30 Malaysian 'experts' who returned from abroad will be meeting the press this Friday at the Pan-Pacific Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

Fong said this group is the first batch of 120 'experts' approved by the government to return to Malaysia from a total of 346 applications.

Adding on, the minister said the government has a strict definition for the word 'expert'.

The applicants who were rejected consist of those who are yet to receive their PhD and without relevant working experience, he said.

"Only those who have obtained their doctorate degree for more than five years and medical specialisation for more than two years are considered as 'experts', explained Fong.

Since early this year, the government has embarked on a programme to attract Malaysian experts residing overseas to return to the country.

Those who return will obtain the approval of permanent resident status for foreign spouses within six months, two-year income tax exemption for income remitted to Malaysia and tax exemption for all personal effects brought into Malaysia, including two motorcars.

According to Fong most of the approved applicants were experts in the fields of information technology, accountancy and medicine from countries such as the United Kingdom, Brunei, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

"The ministry wants to know the reason for the return of these Malaysian experts and understand their feelings. If their reactions are positive, we can encourage many more to come back," he said.