15 factories removed from closure proposals

Remploy, the UK's leading provider of employment services for disabled people, has today informed employees of revised proposals for modernisation of the company which have been sent to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who will scrutinise them before coming to a final decision.

In May this year Remploy produced a proposal to:

• Quadruple the number of jobs the company finds for disabled people in mainstream employment to 20,000 a year in five years' time
• Reduce management and overhead costs by £49m over five years
• Close 32 and merge 11 out of 83 factories
• Guarantee that no disabled employee would be made compulsorily redundant
• Offer all 2,300 affected disabled employees a job with Remploy, a mainstream employer or a social organisation, on their current terms and conditions
• Remain within a £555m government spending limit over five years

Formal consultations with the trade unions began in May. During September and October, the negotiations were chaired by Roger Poole, who was brought in as independent chairman by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Bob Warner, Remploy Chief Executive, said: "We very much appreciated Roger's intervention which produced a constructive approach in the talks. We were able to find common ground with the trade unions on reduction in management costs and overheads, and changes in working practices which will produce additional savings giving a total of £59m over five years.

"We have today submitted a final proposal for consideration by the Secretary of State which includes these savings, an assumption of significantly more public procurement contracts and a programme of voluntary redundancy."

Under the proposal:

• 55 factories would continue (increased from 40) subject to satisfactory progress towards an acceptable loss per disabled employee
• 11 factories would merge as before
• 17 factories would close (reduced from 32)

More than 800 employees, 772 of whom are disabled, work at the additional factories which the company now plans to retain.

The long-term future of the factories which the company is proposing to remove from the closure programme will depend on local agreements on issues including changes to working practices, transfer of work between factories and increases in local public and private sector sales.

Mr Warner said: "We believe there is scope for improvements to the performance of our factories through local programmes of concerted action by our managers, shop stewards, MPs, local authorities and other stakeholders."

These could include:

• Local business development initiatives to secure more public/private sector work
• Training initiatives with colleges and learning and training bodies to support unemployed disabled/disadvantaged people and help reduce factory costs
• Other co-operation proposals with local authority-supported factories

Mr Warner said: "The plan which we have submitted to the Secretary of State meets the goals set by the Government for us to support many more disabled people into jobs in mainstream employment, avoid compulsory redundancy of employees and remain within the £555m funding limit.

"Ministers have committed to careful scrutiny of Remploy's proposals. There will be no factory closures without their agreement.

"Remploy is determined to work constructively with the unions and other stakeholdersÊ to secure a sustainable future both for Remploy factories and our employment services - in particular, in our joint efforts to win high quality, profitableÊ public procurement contracts," Mr Warner said.

Notes to Editors:

• The sites removed from the closure proposals are Aberdare, Aberdeen, Abertillery, Ashington, Bridgend, Spennymoor, Lanarkshire, Leicester, Manchester, Pontefract, Poole, Wigan, Wisbech, Worksop and Wrexham. Employees at the Bradford site, which was planned for closure, will now be able to transfer to the Remploy factory at Leeds
• Remploy and the Government have given a commitment that no disabled employee will be made compulsorily redundant under the modernisation programme
• Last year, Remploy found 5,200 jobs in mainstream employment for people with a range of physical, sensory and mental disabilities. It plans to quadruple that figure to more than 20,000 a year by 2012
• Remploy operates a rapidly expanding network of town and city centre recruitment branches which provide specialist recruitment and development services to job seekers who have a health issue or disability
• The company partners with some of the country's biggest organisations to find jobs for disabled people, including BT, Asda, Christian Salvesen, NHS, Marks & Spencer and B&Q

Further information:

David Felton

tel 02476 515808, 07803 214682

Shiona Williams:

tel 02476 515831, 07977 436141

E-mail:

pressoffice@remploy.co.uk

Web:

www.remploy.co.uk

Address:

Remploy Limited,
Stonecourt,
Siskin Drive,
Coventry, CV3 4FJ