Remploy workers fight bosses' two-tier workforce plan

Submitted by AWL on 31 January, 2012 - 10:25

Remploy employees in the company’s factories in Glasgow and Chesterfield struck for 24 hours last Thursday (26 January) in protest at moves to introduce a two-tier workforce and privatise the company.

Remploy is a government-supported organisation which was set up after the war to provide employment for people with disabilities. It recently formed a partnership with Websters Ltd., a private company which manufactures aids for people with disabilities.

The new company, Remploy Healthcare, has now begun to employ non-disabled production workers and apprentices in Remploy workplaces, on rates of pay worse then those of Remploy staff – although they do exactly the same work as their counterparts.

Remploy Healthcare employees also receive less sick pay and less annual leave, are not allowed to join the final-salary pension scheme, and are not covered by a union recognition agreement.

At the Glasgow factory, the only remaining manufacturer of wheelchairs in the UK, there was a big turnout from GMB members for the picket lines, with support from Glasgow Trades Council, from seven in the morning onwards.

“This is the first time in 65 years of Remploy’s history that there has been industrial action, which is a sad state of affairs, but it’s purely down to senior management,” said Phil Brannan, the Glasgow GMB convenor.

Remploy factories nationally – of which there are 54, employing some 4,000 workers – are currently running at around 50% capacity.

The blame for this lies with local authorities, around half of which fail to ‘exploit’ European Union procurement rules which allow them to allocate work to workplaces for people with disabilities.

The Tories are also planning to scrap government funding for Remploy next year, which constitutes an even bigger threat to jobs.

(But it should be recalled that the last Labour government also shut down nearly 30 Remploy factories in 2008. 85% of the people who lost their job is the process are still unemployed.)

Workers fear that Remploy Healthcare’s actions may be either the first stage in preparing to cut pay for the rest of the workforce or the first stage in privatising the company – or both.

The campaign to protect jobs, pay, and terms and conditions of employment in Remploy is continuing after last Thursday’s strike. Messages of support can be sent to philip.brannan@remploy.co.uk or kevin.shand@remploy.co.uk

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