The government has named six companies that gave written assurance they will between them take on the 110 Arrow Pharm workers who will lose their job.
Playmobil, Methode, Trelleborg, Sigfried, SKAT and Foster Clark were named by Economy Minister Chris Cardona.
Dr Cardona was rebutting criticism by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who accused the government of offering Arrow Pharm workers “a precarious job”.
While speaking at the Nationalist Party club in Qormi, Dr Busuttil read out an SMS, which he claimed was sent by an Arrow Pharm employee to a party spokesman, that explained how the alternative job was a one-month extendable contract that paid some €700 per month.
“Shame on you,” Dr Busuttil said, adding it was incomprehensible how a government that pledged to get rid of precarious work was offering precarious jobs as alternative employment while handing out lucrative jobs to people close to the administration. But Dr Cardona was having none of this criticism. In a strongly worded statement, the minister accused Dr Busuttil of being “irresponsible and insensitive” and denied the alternative jobs were precarious.
Arrow Pharm, a pharmaceutical firm, announced two weeks ago it was halving its packaging plant in Ħal Far and axing 110 jobs.
Last week Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the government had written pledges from some members of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry that they were ready to take on all the 110 workers if and when they were made redundant.
The companies were not named at the time and the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, which represents Arrow Pharm workers, insisted it knew nothing of the written pledges made to the government.
Arrow Pharm was taken over in 2009 by US-based pharmaceutical giant Watson. The American company later also acquired Actavis in 2012.
Watson ended up with two plants in Malta – the Actavis facility at Bulebel and Arrow Pharm at Ħal Far. Last year the company shut down its research and development facility at the Bulebel plant with the loss of 60 jobs. Dr Cardona explained that the search for alternative employment was being coordinated by the Employment and Training Corporation and the UĦM.
He said that on Friday the union forwarded the grades of Arrow Pharm workers at risk of losing their job and a number of CVs. “From this week the ETC and the union will start the process of offering alternative employment to these workers,” Dr Cardona said.
He insisted the government would not abandon Arrow Pharm workers and noted that a task force was set up soon after the company went public with the planned redundancies.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com