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Remploy will close 43 factories Remploy will close 43 factories
(about 1 hour later)
Remploy plans to close 43 factories across the UK which offer work to disabled people. A firm which employs disabled people has unveiled cost-cutting plans to close 43 factories across the UK.
Unions were told 32 of the firm's 83 factories will close and a further 11 will merge with other sites. A total of 32 of Remploy's 83 factories will close and a further 11 will merge with other sites.
Remploy says it wants to cut costs and place more disabled people into mainstream employment rather than in sheltered workshops. Remploy wants to place more disabled people into mainstream employment. It says no disabled person would be made compulsorily redundant.
Unions have called for the sites to stay open and criticised six disability charities who have backed the closures.Unions have called for the sites to stay open and criticised six disability charities who have backed the closures.
The scale of the closures was worse than unions were expecting and sparked warnings of a national strike. Remploy said 2,270 disabled people and 280 non-disabled workers were affected by the changes. Factories in England and Scotland and Wales will close. However, the firm said anyone who wished to continue working would be able to do so.
Remploy employs 5,000 disabled staff at its factories across the UK, which manufacture a variety of goods for firms. Managers of Remploy, which employs 5,000 disabled staff at its factories, met union leaders in London.
Its management have been meeting union leaders in London. 'Change needed'
Mencap, Mind, Radar, Scope, Leonard Cheshire and the Royal National Institute of Deaf People said disabled people were more likely to have fulfilling lives by working in an "inclusive environment". Bob Warner, Remploy's chief executive, told a news conference the company's factories were losing around £100m a year.
He said every job in a Remploy factory cost more than £20,000 to support and for the same money it could place four people in mainstream jobs.
We feel frustrated and totally betrayed by the company and the government Les WoodwardRemploy worker Remploy has 60-year history
Remploy said it had an "ambitious" programme to transfer resources from loss-making factories to support more than 20,000 workers in mainstream employment.
Mr Warner said: "We have a great opportunity to help more disabled people find jobs.
"But we have to change how we work in all areas of Remploy.
"There is now an acceptance that disabled people would prefer to work in mainstream employment alongside non-disabled people rather than in sheltered workshops from which they do not progress and develop."
He said even after the closures it will cost around £9,000 to subsidise each factory job and he could not guarantee there would be no further closures.
Union angerUnion anger
The GMB is launching a campaign to fight the closures. The scale of the closures was worse than unions were expecting and sparked warnings of a national strike.
Spokesman Phil Davies said: "Remploy disabled workers have now been stabbed in the back by the leaders of the disability organisations who called for them to be sacked without ever having spoken to them or their representatives. Phil Davies, national officer for the GMB union, said "We do not accept this level of closures and we will fight to maintain the current factory network.
"We have the grotesque scene of the leaders of six disability organisations scuttling around media studios calling for the handing out of redundancy notices to disabled workers. "The trade unions do not accept the financial arguments that have been put forward and we are concerned at the way the company has conducted itself in the last few weeks, including leaking information to the media."
"A clash now seems inevitable and we are warning that the outcome will be a national strike across all 83 Remploy factories." Mr Davies also accused six charities which have supported closure plans of acting in a "despicable manner".
Set up in 1945, Remploy receives £111m in government subsidy every year. It says it has to close factories to avoid going over budget. Mencap, Mind, Radar, Scope, Leonard Cheshire and the Royal National Institute of Deaf People have said disabled people were more likely to have fulfilling lives by working in an "inclusive environment".
Mr Davies said unions will now consult with their members but he raised the prospect of a national industrial action ballot across all workers at the 83 factories.
Set up in 1945, Remploy receives £111m in government subsidy every year.
Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire, said the government had committed over half a billion pounds to Remploy over the next five years to help it modernise and employ more disabled people.
"I understand the concerns that Remploy's proposals will raise for some employees. However, I have already given an undertaking that there will be no compulsory redundancies for disabled employees."
Ms McGuire added she was pleased the company proposed an "unprecedented support package" which included the same levels of pay and pensions to help employees through the transition.
A group of Remploy workers protested outside the London hotel where the news conference was held.
They held banners saying "save our factories" and shouted they wanted to keep their jobs.
Les Woodward, a disabled worker based in Swansea, south Wales, said: "We feel frustrated and totally betrayed by the company and the government.
"This has come as a complete shock to us all - we did not expect such decimation. They have declared war on us."
The following Remploy factories will close: Aberdare, Aberdeen, Abertillery, Aintree, Ashington, Bradford, Bridgend, Brixton (London), Halifax, Hartlepool, Hillington (Glasgow), Hull, Leatherhead, Leicester, Lydney (Forest of Dean), Manchester, Mansfield, Medway, Pinxton (Derbyshire), Plymouth, Poole, St Helens, Southend, Spennymoor, Stockton, Treforest, Wigan, Wisbech, Wishaw (Lanarkshire), Worksop, Wrexham and York.
The following factories will merge with another site: Barnsley, Birkenhead, Brynamman, Jarrow, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Pontefract, Redruth, Southampton, Stockport, Woolwich (London) and Ystradgynlais.
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