Remploy workers to stage another day of action

Remploy employes opposed to the closure of dozens of factories are due to stage their second 24-hour strike tomorrow.

The GMB and Unite members are expected to take action at all 54 Remploy factory sites.

The Unite union has criticized “the silence” of the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith in failing to offer any help to the soon-to-be made redundant 1,700 Remploy workers. Unlike the Welsh Government which the union said has pledged £2.4 million for employers who give jobs to Remploy workers when the factories in Wales close.

Unite said the Remploy workers’ hope to build on last week’s strike in the continuing fight to save the UK’s 54 Remploy factories from being closed, or sold off by the coalition government.

The government has pledged to protect the £320 million budget for specialist disability employment but concluded it should be spent in supporting more disabled people into mainstream employment, rather than supporting segregated factories employing mainly disabled people.

Responding to a statement by Maria Miller the minister for disabled people, Mark Goldring the chief executive, Mencap, said: “While Remploy factories have been of real benefit in the past, we believe that employment in the mainstream market place is key to the inclusion of people with a learning disability in all parts of society and to actively changing public attitudes towards people with a learning disability. 

“Value for money is crucial and it is sensible to reinvest funding released from less effective employment programmes into Access to Work, which is widely supported by disabled people.”