The Selangor government has decided to permit individuals and companies with quit rent arrears to settle the amount via instalments.

According to Bernama, the Selangor Media Centre said those concerned should contact their respective district offices to discuss the matter.

The current quit rent arrears in the state stands at RM200 million.

The state government also warned of stern action against those who failed to settle the quit rent, including publishing their names in the media or seizing their land.

State officers will visit houses and offices to hand over final warnings, urging the dodgers to settle their quint rent.

Flexible hours

In an unrelated development, Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn said labour intensive factories should adopt flexible working hours to encourage more locals to seek employment there.

He said this would help ensure factories did not get too dependent on foreign labour while housewives and retirees could find work in these factories.

"There are many housewives, retirees in rural areas, who can work but then not within the specific 8am to 5pm period.

"They can only work half a day may be from 1pm to 8pm or only on four working days. So if this can be implemented in the whole country, factories can get a larger pool of workers then and people can gain something in this win-win situation," he added.

Fong said some 500 to 600 factories had already implemented the system which was particularly suitable in factories located in rural areas where the ministry had detected positive results.

He said factories could even outsource their products by sending the materials to the workers' home and come up with the finished products under the supervision of their officials.

Fong said this outsourcing could be implemented in factories which produced textiles, plastic products, ceramics and even electronic products.

He said labour officers would be discussing payments and related matters as well as relevant conditions with factory and company managements.