Updated 10.20am with further detail
A ‘resizing programme’ that could see the manufacturing giant STMicroelectronics slash up to 3,000 jobs in France and Italy will not impact Malta, the company told Times of Malta.
However, the company also said that "we have not talked yet about manufacturing reshaping plans in detail, and more information will come in due course."
Last week, company CEO Jean-Marc Chery said that the company was mulling a 6% cut in its workforce, with discussions with unions over voluntary redundancy schemes set to begin.
The company employs 50,000 people worldwide, 1,800 of them in Malta. It is one of the largest private employers in the country and exports more than €600 million annually.
The news comes shortly after STMicroelectronics posted its yearly results for 2024, describing the year as “one of the worst years in many decades for the industries we serve, particularly in industrial and automotive”.
Its 2024 revenues dropped by a fifth compared to 2023, while the company registered a net income of $1.56 billion in 2024, far less than $4 billion the previous year.
But the company reassured Times of Malta that these schemes only apply to its operations that take place outside Malta’s shores, such as research and development and non-production activities.
The company’s manufacturing arm, which includes its Kirkop site, will remain untouched by the measures, a spokesperson said.
Nor will the company’s plans for future investment in the country change, the spokesperson added.
In 2023, the government announced that it would be pumping millions in EU funds into the company in state aid to help boost its advanced microchip production.
“What we are starting today is not just a cost reduction programme,” the spokesperson said. “It is a company-wide programme to accelerate our efficiency and competitiveness in our SG&A (non-operational) and R&D (research and development) organisations.
“In the coming weeks, we will start engaging in a constructive dialogue with employee representatives around end of career support programs, built on a voluntary basis, including early retirement.”
The programme could save the company anywhere between $300m and $360m by the end of 2027, compared to its costs last year.
Last year, the company announced that it would be restructuring its manufacturing arm, moving away from older plants to focus on plants in Crolles, France and Agrate and Catania, both in Italy.