[guide.chat] news remploy
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 10:38:49 -0000
8 March 2012 Last updated at 08:38
Remploy closure plans: 'Social enterprise' hope for workers
The UK government says the factories are not financially viable
272 Remploy staff face redundancy
Remploy planning factory closures
Disabled fears over Remploy fate
The Welsh government wants to look into whether there are alternatives to help
save jobs at Remploy factories threatened by closure.
Seven of the nine Welsh factories have been proposed for closure, threatening
the jobs of 272 disabled people.
The skills minister says he needs more details about Remploy's assets before
considering stepping in, but social enterprises could be considered.
The UK government said the factories were not financially viable.
Workers fear they will not be able to find new jobs if the factories shut.
Skills Minister Leighton Andrews said after Wednesday's announcement that the
Welsh government would examine the options for future support for the factories
in Wales, including the development of social enterprises.
"It would be premature for us as a government to say more at this stage until
we have more detailed information from the UK government and from Remploy," he
said.
There are many, many offices, many supermarkets that I could not work in as a
wheelchair user [because they] wouldn't be accessible?
Simon Green
Bridgend Coalition of Disabled People
"Our focus as a government will be on maintaining employment opportunities for
Remploy workers."
UK coalition ministers say "non-viable" Remploy factories should close with the
money re-invested into other schemes to help disabled people find work.
The sites listed for closure are in Aberdare, Abertillery, Bridgend,
Croespenmaen, Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea and Wrexham.
Factories at Porth and Neath will continue to operate.
The UK minister for disabled people, Maria 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 £320m budget for disability employment has been protected, adding
that the money will be spent more effectively.
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) said around a fifth of that budget
was currently spent on Remploy factories, but nearly all of the factories were
loss making and last year lost £68.3m.
Simon Green, chair of the Bridgend Coalition of Disabled People, said: "I'm
extremely worried."
He said Remploy factories offered disabled people a "supportive environment"
and were "geared up" to their needs, unlike other workplaces which were not
always adapted.
Mr Green, a wheelchair user, told BBC Wales: "There are many, many offices,
many supermarkets that I could not work in as a wheelchair user [because they]
wouldn't be accessible."
'Superb support'
In Aberdare, a private company, Modesty Limited, has been using the local
Remploy factory to manufacture its underwear products for the spray tan
industry.
Christine Fitt, a joint director at the company, said the factory's closure
would have a big effect on the business.
She said workers had given "superb support".
"The impact on us is we have to find someone else to manufacture our products
and we are being forced, possibly, out of Wales," she said.
Rhian Davies, chief executive of Disability Wales, said she supported an
integrated society and said that Remploy factories were set up in a different
era.
But Les Woodward, a wood machinist at Remploy in Swansea, and a Remploy
national convener, said: "We do not see ourselves as being segregated.
"We all support an integrated society but it should be based on choice," he
said, adding "we won't go down without a fight".
Remploy factories were established 66 years ago as part of the creation of the
welfare state.
from
Vanessa The Google Girl.
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