The sudden spate of redundancies over the past few days highlights the importance for Malta to intensify its efforts to restructure the economy to generate sufficient jobs in areas in which it has a competitive advantage, said the Malta Employers Association yesterday.

This was the only way in which the country could emerge as a winner from globalisation, said the MEA.

In a statement, the MEA said it fully sympathised with the employees who, through no fault of their own, lost their jobs and it would definitely be part of the collective effort by the social partners to ensure that alternative employment was found for them within the shortest time possible.

“It is evident that in spite of the fact that Maltese workers are relatively more productive than those in many developing countries, competitive forces are still leading to relocation to other countries with production costs considerably lower than ours. Such developments are part of the global reality that all societies are coming to terms with,” the MEA said.

The association said this was a clear indication that Malta needed to build and sustain a constant momentum to generate job creation in higher value added sectors and also to retrain workers to improve their occupational mobility. Malta should insist on having access to the EU Globalisation Fund to assist the workers affected to find alternative employment.