Remploy workers living with the threat of redundancy in Birmingham this Christmas could have a more hopeful New Year if plans to turn their factory into an employee-owned business work out successfully. The factory in Garrets Green is part of the government-owned [Read more...]
Employee ownership: Remploy and beyond
December 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Disability living allowance: why Labour’s safeguards are crucial
December 13, 2012 By 1 Comment
Sally Bercow (centre) and Jane Asher (far left) with fellow protesters on the Hardest Hit march in May 2011 against government plans to cut disability living allowance and other benefits and services. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Today the government will set out its plans to change disability living allowance, while Labour will set out the safeguards we’re determined to see put in place. Right now disabled people are being hit from all sides. On Monday ministers had to be summoned to the House of Commons to explain why they were shutting Remploy factories without any serious plan to get sacked workers into jobs. The Work Programme has proved a catastrophe for disabled people wanting work. It found jobs for just a thousand workers. [Read more...]
Remploy: Wrexham MP Ian Lucas’ Treasury ‘fat cheque’ claim
December 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Concerns over failed attempts to secure the future of the Wrexham Remploy factory will be raised by the town’s MP with the UK government. Ian Lucas is to meet the disability minister after the Remploy site became one of six closed this year in Wales, with others earmarked for closure. [Read more...]
Call for end to Scottish Remploy closures
November 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Scottish government has called for an immediate halt to any further action to sell or close remaining Remploy businesses, which employ people with disabilities. It came just days after it was announced that more than 40 workers were to lose their job at the Springburn factory in Glasgow. At the start of the year, there were nine Remploy factories in Scotland. [Read more...]
35 of 1,000 sacked Remploy workers have found new jobs, says Labour
November 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Labour has called for a halt to the closure of Remploy factories, which provide employment for disabled people, after it emerged that, despite ministerial promises to help sacked workers back into work, only 3% of those made redundant have found new jobs. [Read more...]
Marks & Spencer jobs drive targets disabled
November 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A drive by Marks & Spencer to recruit more than 1,000 workers is targeting disabled people. The retailer is looking to staff its new distribution centre at Castle Donington in Leicestershire. The company said it was working with Remploy, which gets disabled people into work, to make sure this group are represented in the process. [Read more...]
How social enterprise can save Remploy
October 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
When I was approached by Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerceto see if I could develop a rescue plan for Remploy’s Bolton factory, some form of social enterprise was always going to be at the heart of a solution. That phrase covers quite a lot of ground from charity to Community Interest Company but I felt that we needed a legal structure which was as simple as possible. [Read more...]
