Consistent with the global demand for palm oil, the intensified upstream harvesting activities of oil
palms’ fresh fruit bunches, despite the harvesters evidences of various ergonomics risk factors leading to
musculoskeletal disorders should be a cause for concern. Thus, this study describes the effectiveness of a
modified and locally adapted Participatory Action-Oriented Training intervention program in improving
the working environment of the harvesters. A training program modified and customized to the
harvesters’ working in oil palm plantation consist of 3 primary instrument (awareness video, interactive
lecture and action checklist) with 3 reinforcing activities (to increase knowledge, enhance understanding
and practical application). Based on the result of post-intervention assessment, the self-reported
prevalence of MSD and KAP score among Intervention Group (IG) did not significantly differ from
Control Group (CG). Instead of decreasing, the prevalence of MSD in the past 12 months and 7 days
increased within IG. Qualitative findings in this research show that the negative psychosocial and
organizational climate has severely affected the implementation of PAOT rendering the effect of the
intervention approach. The interventions were ineffective on the IG as this study suffers from various
situational barriers as obstacles to benefit the full extent of PAOT advantages.