More support for Remploy

2 December 2011

CLIVE LEWIS, LABOUR CANDIDATE, NORWICH SOUTH, & RICHARD HOWETT MEP CALL ON 40 EAST OF ENGLAND COUNCILS TO PROVIDE WORK TO REMPLOY FACTORIES THREATENED BY THE GOVERNMENT WITH CLOSURE

It is important that we mark International Day for Disabled People by making people aware of the level of disabilities in our communities and get them to put pressure on their local councils to provide work to the remaining 54 Remploy factories where over 4,000 disabled people work says GMB

Two prominent Labour politicians have called on 40 East of England councils to provide work to Remploy factories being threatened with closure. These factories employ 4,000 disabled workers.

The two politicians, Clive Lewis, Labour Candidate for Norwich South and Richard Howett MEP for East of England, will visit the Norwich Remploy factory tomorrow Friday 2nd December at 11 a.m. to speak to GMB members facing the sack.

The visit comes the day before December 3rd which is the United National (UN) International Day of Persons with Disability. It aims to increase the understanding of the issued around disabilities and attention to the dignity, rights and wellbeing of people with disabilities.

GMB last week wrote to all 40 East of England councils that were revealed in a recent GMB report not to be providing a single public procurement contract to Remploy factories and asking them to change their policy and keep disabled workers in work. Councils are allowed to provide work to disabled workers sheltered employment factories under EU procurement rules.

The 40 East of England councils are Babergh, Basildon, Braintree, Breckland, Brentwood, Broadland, Broxbourne, Cambridge, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Dacorum, East Cambridgeshire, East Hertfordshire, Epping Forest, Fenland, Forest Heath, Great Yarmouth, Harlow, Hertsmere, Huntingdonshire, Ipswich, King`s Lynn & West Norfolk, Maldon, Mid Suffolk, North Hertfordshire, North Norfolk, Norwich, Rochford, South Cambridgeshire, South Norfolk, St Albans, Stevenage, Suffolk Coastal, Tendring, Three Rivers, Uttlesford, Watford, Waveney and Welwyn Hatfield.

The Remploy factory in Norwich is the only Remploy factory in the East of England. . GMB is urging the East of England public to lobby their local councillors to provide work to Remploy. In Britain as a whole there are 201 out of 408 councils not placing working with Remploy factories.

The Government is planning to stop funding Remploy and thereby close all remaining 54 UK factories. The Remploy workers crucial campaign objective is to get the workload up from the current 50% of capacity to 100% and to keep Remploy factories open.

The deliberate policy of starving Remploy factories of work has rendered them less economic, being only 50% loaded with work because either public bodies have failed to support them with work as allowed under EU rules or their own managers are turning down work.

Remploy workers want help to get their factories fully loaded. Members of the public can help if they are involved with any of these bodies or can lobby MPs, councillors and others to get them to place work with Remploy.

These factories have a successful track record going back to 1946 till the public authorities stopped loading them with work in 1990s due to then EU directive. The EU rules have been changed and the factories can be successful again when they are fully loaded. Making uniforms for the armed forces, emergency services and medical staff, and supplying schools would more than keep them busy.

Glen Holdom, GMB East of England Organiser responsible for GMB members working at Remploy said, "GMB welcome the support of these two politicians for this initiative to help people become aware of the level of disabilities and get them to put pressure on their local councils to provide work to the remaining 54 Remploy factories where over 4,000 disabled people are employed.

GMB has asked all 40 East of England councils that are not taking advantage of the EU rules, that allow them to provide contracts to disabled workers in sheltered company like Remploy, which public procurement contract they will provide to Remploy and when.

It is not good enough for these 40 councils to ignore the situation when they have it in their power to provide work to Remploy factories that will keep them open if they do so. They will be spending the money anyway and they should be spending it with Remploy to give jobs to disabled people.

GMB want a reply from each of the councils before Christmas tell us which contract is going to Remploy, how much it is worth and when it will be transferred.

If abled bodied workers are having trouble getting jobs it will be far harder for these disabled worker to find jobs in main stream industry if the Remploy factories are closed down by the government.”

Richard Howitt MEP said, "Remploy gives people with disabilities the chance to participate on an equal footing in the workplace and the closure of the last factory in the region would be a body-blow for its workers.

I successfully fought to change the European rules on procurement to encourage councils to buy from organisations like Remploy and I'm deeply saddened that so many in the region haven't yet done so.

I call on all our local councils to look again at their spending and make every effort to support Remploy and keep their factories open and viable."

Notes:

Regional table of councils NOT providing work to Remploy factories

Region	Number of councils by region that don't provide contracts	Total number of regional councils
South East	51 out of	74
Eastern	40 out of	52
East Midlands	33 out of	45
South West	25 out of	42
North West	17 out of	41
West Midlands	16 out of	33
Yorkshire & the Humber	8 out of	22
Scotland	7 out of	32
Wales	2 out of	22
London	1 out of	33
North East	1 out of	12
National	201 out of	408

2 Here is the full list of 54 Remploy factories across the UK under threat of closure when current public funding ends in April 2013. If these proposals go ahead 4,000 workers will lose their jobs. The alphabetical list of Remploy factories facing closure is as follows: Aberdare, Aberdeen, Abertillery, Acton, Ashington, Barking, Barrow, Birkenhead, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bolton, Bridgend, Bristol, Burnley, Chesterfield, Cleator Moor, Clydebank, Coventry, Cowdenbeath, Croespenmaen, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Gateshead, Heywood, Huddersfield, Leeds, Leicester, Leven, Manchester, Merthyr Tydfil, Motherwell, Neath Port Talbot, Newcastle, North London, North Staffordshire, Norwich, Oldham, Penzance, Pontefract, Poole, Porth, Portsmouth, Preston, Sheffield, Southampton, Spennymoor, Springburn, Stirling, Sunderland, Swansea, Wigan, Worksop and Wrexham.

3 Keep up to date with the campaign to keep Remploy at live at http://www.gmb.org.uk/and http://www.svaeremployfactories.co.uk/

4 Remploy goods and services

Remploy goods and services are used by many public sector organisations including central government departments, local government, police, fire and rescue, schools and universities are benefitting by procuring goods and services from the many enterprise businesses that Remploy have to offer. From supplying furniture to thousands of schools to contracts with the Royal Mail, CCTV monitoring to local authorities, the Flexible New Deal contract for the Department for Work and Pensions, Employment Service Operations to Job Centre Plus, Automotive services to over 30 police forces, IT recycling (E-cycle) services to the Welsh Assembly Government, Remploy is providing a cost effective, efficient and valuable service to these organisations amongst many hundreds of other satisfied clients.

5 A 100,000 strong signature petition calling on the government to save Remploy factories was presented to 10 Downing Street on Monday 7th November 2011.

6 Data supplied by Remploy and analysed by independent researchers on behalf of GMB.

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