EUR681,207 in European Union funding to assist textile workers made redundant earlier this year is expected to be made available soon, once it is approved by the EU’s Budgetary Authority, the Council and the European Parliament, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday in Brussels.
The funding is being made available through the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, and will be matched by the government – bringing the total funding up to e1.3 million in assistance for 675 textile workers made redundant with the closure of the VF Textiles Ltd and Bortex factories, which led to respective redundancies of 562 and 113 redundancies.
According to EU rules, the globalisation fund gives financial assistance in cases in which over 1,000 workers have been made redundant as a result of globalisation pressures.
But on the insistence of Malta, an eligibility provision was inserted to provide for the circumstances of small labour markets in which the 1,000 redundancy threshold has not been reached.
The funds are to be used toward a combination of measures including occupational guidance, training, aid for self-employment, job-search allowance and redeployment schemes.
Each redundant worker will benefit from an average of Lm150, although the exact amount will vary in different cases, to take courses either through the ETC or other recognised training providers aimed at training for new skills, or to update their current skills so as to make them more employable.
The ETC will also be granting start-up funds for workers setting up new business ventures to cover expenses such as permits and licenses, the first year of rent on premises, marketing and basic equipment.
Employers hiring redundant workers will also be given a “redeployment grant” covering half the national minimum wage for 17 weeks.
The ETC will also grant workers a job search allowance of Lm30 per week between their seventh and 12th month of unemployment, considering they receive unemployment benefits for the first six months of unemployment. The allowance will be conditional upon active participation in labour market measures in consultation with employment advisors.
Each redundant employee will be able to consult with recognised occupational guidance officers for six hours each and the ETC estimates some 200 workers will be taking up the opportunity.
The profiling of redundant workers has already been carried out by Employment and Training Corporation employment advisors, during which each worker was provided with information about employment and training opportunities. They were also helped to identify ETC courses suitable to update their skills or acquire new ones.
Malta’s application for eligibility and the release of funds had been made in September following the mass redundancies in June of this year and the European Commission approved Malta’s application on Thursday.
Malta’s application is to be dealt with under Slovenia’s EU presidency, which begins in January and will need to be approved by the EU’s Budgetary Authority, the Council and the European Parliament.