PM pledges full support for redundant workers

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday expressed full solidarity with the workers laid off from the textile factories VF and Bortex and promised his "personal and the government's full support for all the workers affected".

"We are very concerned about what has happened in the last few days especially for the workers involved. We have been expecting these decisions as the textiles industry all over Europe is relocating to cheaper countries. This is a fact of life although we still worry when these things happen and people lose their jobs," said the Prime Minister, in Brussels for an EU summit.

"However, while expressing full solidarity with all the workers involved, I call upon them to show courage and to still look forward to a better future. The government will leave no stone unturned to carry on attracting new investment so that workers like these will find better jobs in the future."

Dr Gonzi gave details of the work immediately undertaken by the government as soon as it learnt about the lay-offs.

The Employment and Training Corporation had immediately been mobilised to help find alternative work, while the government will soon be submitting a formal application to the EU to tap the new European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Globalisation aimed at helping member states face substantial and sudden layoffs due to changing global industrial patterns. "We have already started looking at the possibility of tapping these EU funds. I think that we are eligible for this help but we still need to get a response from the EU," the Prime Minister said.

During internal EU discussions held last year over the establishment of the fund, Malta had fought tooth and nail to make sure that although its economy was so small, it would still be eligible for it. The original proposals submitted by the European Commission had excluded redundancies of less than a thousand and thus excluded Malta.

However, following tough discussions member states finally agreed to support Malta's position and removed the threshold.

Prime Minister Gonzi said that unfortunately, Malta was facing massive competition and its enterprises in the textiles sector had become too expensive to compete in a globalised world. The government was determined to continue to attract new investment to compensate for this changing scenario.

Dr Gonzi noted that Malta currently had the lowest level of unemployment since 1995 and this showed that the island's economy was creating many new and better opportunities.

"I am saying this only to show that the redundant workers should not lose hope and should start looking forward to new opportunities that will arise," he said.

Yesterday, Labour MEP Joseph Muscat and Labour industry spokesman Chris Agius called on the government to apply for aid from the special fund.