Brussels okays aid for redundant workers

The European Commission yesterday accepted an application by Malta for assistance under the European Globalisation adjustment Fund (EGF).

The EU executive said the application will now be sent to the European Parliament and Council for a final decision.

The Commission said the funding will help 675 redundant workers in the textiles sector return to employment.

"Malta is a small country where a relatively limited number of redundancies can have a big impact. I am confident that the EGF will help take the edge off the job losses by assisting the Maltese authorities in getting these workers back into the labour market," Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said.

The application was filed after VF and Bortex unexpectedly closed all or part of their operations in Malta last summer. VF, part of the multinational VF Corporation, closed its factory in July with 562 redundancies and Bortex decided to close down part of its Maltese operation in September, resulting in 113 job losses.

The Commission said the redundancies represent 0.4 per cent of Malta's active population.

"Despite trends in the EU clothing industry towards delocalisation to lower cost countries such as China, India and Turkey, the redundancies were nevertheless unexpected as both companies had recently invested in their Maltese production sites and human resources."

The total estimated cost of the package of assistance is €1.3 million, of which the European Commission will fork out €681,207.