EGF to help 675 textile workers in Malta

The European Commission has approved an application from Malta for assistance under the European Globalisation adjustment Fund (EGF). The application will now be sent to the European Parliament and Council for decision. The funding will help 675 redundant workers in the textiles sector back into employment. It is the fifth application for financial assistance from the Fund to be put forward by the Commission.

EU Employment Commissioner Vladimír Špidla said that 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.

The application came after two Maltese textiles manufacturing companies – VF and Bortex –unexpectedly closed all or part of their operations in Malta. VF, part of the multinational VF Corporation, closed its factory in Malta in July 2007 with 562 redundancies, while Bortex closed down part of its Maltese operation from September 2007, resulting in 113 job losses.

With its small labour market, the redundancies represent 0.4% 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 EUR 1.3 million, of which the European Commission has been asked to co-fund EUR 0.68 million.