Remploy to announce closure plans

12.22.22pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 22nd May 2007

Plans to close factories which employ disabled workers are expected to be announced later. The Remploy company says it wants to cut costs and place more disabled people into mainstream employment rather than in sheltered workshops.

Remploy has 5,000 disabled staff who work in its 83 factories across the UK. Unions are calling for the sites to remain open and have criticised six disability charities who have backed the closures.

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".

The GMB is launching a campaign to fight the closures. 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. 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. A clash now seems inevitable and we are warning that the outcome will be a national strike across all 83 Remploy factories."

Set up in 1945, Remploy receives £111m in government subsidy every year. It says it has to close factories to avoid going over budget.

Remploy's management is meeting union leaders in London on Tuesday.