Employees who in June last year were made redundant after their companies, VF and Bortex, shifted their operations to other countries, received individual support by the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC), with the help of financial assistance from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), the ETC said.

The EGF is an innovative initiative by the European Commission intended to offset the impact of global economic change on workers in certain industries.

In 2005, Commission president Josè Manuel Barroso proposed the setting up of a globalisation adjustment fund to provide a European response to help persons losing their jobs due to changes in world trade.

This was agreed to by EU leaders in December 2005 and, after further refinement by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in 2006, the fund was established on January 1, 2007.

The fund provides support in terms of active measures which help redundant workers to re-enter the labour market.

Malta applied for these funds immediately after the announcement of the mass redundancies at VF and Bortex were made.

A number of measures have been offered, including the profiling of each redundant employee by ETC employment advisers to establish their skills and training needs; a professional occupational guidance service to all of these workers; re-training; and assistance to those wishing to start a business.

Redundant workers who were still unemployed six months after the redundancy were entitled to a weekly job search allowance while they underwent one or more active measures.

Employers recruiting redundant employees were entitled to a grant which corresponded to 50 per cent of the minimum wage for 17 weeks.

There were 141 employers who engaged 239 workers on the redeployment scheme.

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