Last updated at 14:20, Thursday, 09 August 2012

REMPLOY will shut its factory in Cleator Moor this year with the loss of all 15 jobs, starting this month.

closing: Protesters at Remploy’s Cleator Moor plant in July

The site at the Leconfield Industrial Estate was threatened with closure last month as one of 27 that will be sold off or shut altogether.

Hopes had been resting on a buy-out or a takeover, but the GMB union and management have now confirmed that it will definitely close.

Redundancies will start later this month and the shutters will come down before the end of the year.

Some factories around the country have been saved after staff and outside organisations submitted rescue plans.

GMB deputy shop steward Norman Finley said: “We are closing this year. We don’t know when but it’ll be some time this year. We are all up in the air at the moment.”

Cleator Moor Remploy manager Alan Gauld said he wasn’t allowed to comment but a spokesman confirmed it would shut.

Redundancies are expected in mid-August with a likely closing of the doors before the end of 2012.

Those factories sidestepping closure had submitted “business plans” to stay open, or other commercial enterprises or voluntary organisations had come forward with initiatives to take them on. These had then been considered for their viability by independent advisers.

The spokesman was unable to say whether a rescue plan had been submitted for the Cleator Moor site.

The spokesman said: “The union rep is absolutely right and we don’t know where the impression might have been gained there was going to be a buyer.”

This week national union leaders from Unite and the GMB threatened further rounds of industrial action after they discovered that Remploy workers who transfer to any new private employer will not receive the same level of pension as they currently enjoy.

Nationally, the unions have said this is because the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has decided that any company taking over a Remploy business does not have to honour the Fair Deal pension’s legislation which ensures that a pension of similar value has to be provided.

Mr Finley said the 15 staff, 14 of whom are disabled, would also not benefit from the Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment. (TUPE).

This serves to protect employees’ terms and conditions when a business is transferred from one owner to another.

Mr Finley is now awaiting advice from regional union organisers.

Last month, the government announced that 27 factories will close by the end of the year, putting about 1,700 disabled staff out of work – despite a 12 per cent growth in the sales of the products it makes.

First published at 11:10, Thursday, 09 August 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk