After five years of often back-breaking work on a Malaysian palm oil plantation, Bangladeshi national Babul told his employer this month he was ready to call it quits.

The plantation owner in Peninsular Malaysia immediately countered with a bonus of RM500 - around a quarter of Babul's monthly salary - to entice him to extend his contract by at least a year.

The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating a labour shortage in the Malaysian palm oil industry, which is heavily reliant on foreign workers...