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Greens question state aid to profit making companies
Greens call on government to publish details of state aid provided to pharmaceutical companies Actavis and Arrow Pharm, who last week shed 110 jobs.
11 February 2014, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
2 min read
Expressing concern over the jobs shed by pharmaceutical companies Actavis and Arrow Pharm, the Green Party today called on government to reveal the state aid the companies received over the years.
Alternattiva Demokratika spokesperson on energy, industry and infrastructure Ralph Cassar said pointed out that both Actavis and Arrow Pharm benefited from advantageous tax rates, large subsidies for the training of employees, as well as subsidised rates on the use of public land for their factories.
"We call on the Government to see how to tie public aid to social obligations towards workers, especially since this public aid meant huge profits for the same companies. The Government should publish information about all the aid received by Actavis and Arrow Pharm over the years," he said.
Following the merger of the two companies, Cassar expressed concern over the loss of 110 jobs including those in research and development at Actavis and at the Arrow factory in Hal Far.
Cassar said this was worrying because it involves companies which both separately and merged under the same owners were making huge profits.
"Although the Government indicated that alternative jobs have been found for the last group of workers, the problem is that these companies are firing workers even though they have been granted publicly funded fiscal incentives. The obvious question is whether profit making companies fire workers even though they received state aid."
He also noted that on a European level, the European Greens are making proposals to curtail speculation on the financial markets - where the main interest is to make huge profits in the shortest possible time.
AD stressed that it supported these initiatives, which are also backed by European trade unions, "apart from Maltese ones, together with Labour and PN. It is unacceptable that while we continue subsidising industry with public funds, at the first opportunity it neglects its social obligations especially when it is making huge profits."
