Engineering news
Unions have slammed the government's decision to stop supporting more than 30 loss-making Remploy factories, leading to their closure and the potential loss of 1,700 disabled people's jobs.
Remploy has said it was planning to close 36 of its 54 factories with potential compulsory redundancies of 1,752 workers at the sites. Minister for disabled people Maria Miller said more disabled people would benefit from the decision, but unions reacted angrily.
Phil Davies, national officer of the GMB said: "This decision to sack 1,752 people in 36 Remploy factories across the country is one of the worst decisions that this discredited coalition government has taken since coming to office.
"Thousands of disabled workers will now pay with their jobs for the incompetence of this government and other public sector bodies that did not take advantage of EU procurement rules that allow supported manufacturing jobs for disabled workers. These factories have lacked support for years and have never been properly loaded with enough work to make them economically viable."
Kevin Hepworth, Unite's national officer added: "GMB and the other trade unions in Remploy will not stand by and allow this attack to go unanswered."
The news that the factories are to be closed marks another low point in a turbulent few years for Remploy, which has made other closures and redundancies due to a lack of orders for its factories. Unions have long argued, however, that the factories are essential in providing a safe and stable environment for disabled workers.
Miller said the Remploy board was proposing to close the sites by the end of the year because they were unlikely to achieve independent financial viability. She said the £320 million budget for disability employment has been protected, adding that the money will be spent more effectively. In a written ministerial statement responding to a government-commissioned review into disability employment, Miller said savings from policy changes being announced will be used on "proven employment programmes" to benefit "many more" disabled people.
The minister said she had assessed "very carefully" the needs of Remployworkers, as well as the 6.9 million disabled people of working age who could benefit from greater specialist employment support.
She said: "The government will reduce its current subsidy to Remploy from the beginning of the new financial year so that we cease funding factories which make significant losses year after year and restrict funding to those factories which might have a prospect of a viable future without government subsidy."
Remploy will shortly begin consulting with unions on the proposed closure of the 36 factories across the UK and on the potential compulsory redundancy of 1,752 people at the sites, most of them disabled workers, she said.