Financial deal reached for Carlo Gavazzi employees – UHM, GWU

# Historic Pay-Off Deal Ends Carlo Gavazzi Stand-Off, Hands Workers €4.3 Million Lifeline

**By Charlotte Zammit**
*Wednesday, 11 June 2025, 7:45 am*

Birkirkara’s industrial estate fell quiet at dawn yesterday—not from the usual hum of forklifts, but from the collective sigh of 212 families who, after 19 tense months, finally know their futures are secure. A marathon 14-hour negotiating session between electronics manufacturer Carlo Gavazzi Ltd, the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin (UHM) and the General Workers’ Union (GWU) ended at 2:17 a.m. with a €4.3 million severance-and-retraining package that union leaders are calling “the largest voluntary redundancy settlement ever negotiated on Maltese soil.”

The deal closes a chapter that began in November 2023 when the Swiss parent company announced it would shutter the 52-year-old Maltese plant and shift production to Slovakia. Initial offers of statutory minimum redundancy—roughly €1,200 per year of service—sparked outrage. Workers staged a 38-day sit-in, camping inside the factory canteen in rotating shifts, cooking pots of *ħobż biż-żejt* on portable hobs and singing *għana* ballads to keep morale high. Their protest became a national flash-point, discussed in village *każini* and on prime-time TV debates alike.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana personally intervened last week, invoking a little-used 1978 law that allows government to withhold transfer of machinery if “national social interest” is threatened. That leverage proved decisive. Under the final accord:

– Every worker with 15+ years receives €18,000 plus €950 per extra year, almost triple the legal minimum.
– 60 workers aged 55-62 will transition straight into government-paid “pre-pension” schemes until retirement.
– A €450,000 joint fund—co-financed by Carlo Gavazzi, Malta Enterprise and EU micro-credits—will pay for up-skilling in robotics, renewable-energy installation and tourism hospitality.
– The company retains a 20-person R&D hub on site, keeping high-value jobs and the iconic “Designed in Malta” label alive.

**Cultural ripple effects**

Carlo Gavazzi’s plant opened in 1973, three years after Malta became a republic. For half a century it offered school-leavers a pathway from secondary-education to middle-class stability—so much so that “*Għandi xogħol mal-Gavazzi*” became local shorthand for steady employment. Weddings, festa fireworks and even village football-team sponsorships were bank-rolled by wages that arrived every 28 days “*bħal-linja tal-omnibus*”, as 62-year-old former assembler Ċensu Pace recalls. “My daughter graduated medicine because Carlo Gavazzi paid the stipend,” he told *Hot Malta*, voice cracking outside the locked gates yesterday. “Tonight I can look her in the eye and say we didn’t bow down.”

The settlement also averts what sociologist Dr Maria Grech at the University of Malta calls “a *żejtża* moment”—a painful echo of the 1990s shipyard lay-offs that scarred the Grand Harbour belt. “Malta’s social fabric is woven through its workplaces,” Grech explains. “When a plant closes, the parish *band club* loses trombonists, the *pastizzi* vendor loses breakfast regulars, and village feasts shrink. This deal cushions that domino effect.”

**Community wins beyond cash**

Beyond euros and cents, unions secured cultural concessions. Carlo Gavazzi will donate its archives—blueprints, vintage calculators and a 1974 photograph of Dom Mintoff touring the assembly line—to Heritage Malta for a future exhibition on post-independence industry. The company will also sponsor ten annual STEM scholarships for students from Birkirkara, St Venera and Ħamrun, ensuring the factory’s memory fertilises the next generation of engineers.

Labour MP and former shop-steward Alex Muscat hailed the agreement as proof that “the Maltese worker still punches above his weight.” Nationalist spokesperson Jerome Caruana Cilia, while welcoming the payout, warned that “we need an industrial policy that prevents another Carlo Gavazzi exodus.” Both parties now face pressure to table concrete proposals before parliament adjourns for the summer recess.

As the sun rose over the silent plant yesterday, workers posed for a final group photo, waving the Maltese flag that had hung above the canteen door since day one of the sit-in. Someone produced a portable speaker; *Għanja Malta* blared across the car park. They sang the line *“Min jaħdem ma jħarisx lura”*—he who works does not look back—with tears, but without regret. The factory may close, yet the dignity it gave an island nation remains open for business.

—

### METADATA
“`json
{
“title”: “€4.3m Redundancy Jackpot: Carlo Gavazzi Workers Win Malta’s Biggest Payout After 19-Month Siege”,
“categories”: [“Business”, “Community”],
“tags”: [“National”, “Birkirkara”, “Labour Rights”, “Industrial Heritage”, “Unions”],
“imageDescription”: “Dawn light over the shuttered Carlo Gavazzi factory gates in Birkirkara; jubilant workers in blue overalls embrace while holding a Maltese flag; GWU and UHM banners flutter in foreground, symbolising union victory and community resilience”
}
“`