Remploy

Written by Peter Black and published in Glamorgan Gazette 28 June 2007 on Thu 26th Jul 2007

When I last visited the Remploy factory in Bridgend about 18 months ago I was met by huge optimism for the future. At the time the factory was manufacturing windows for the Valleys to Coast Housing Association and it had a host of other contracts with automobile companies to produce parts for their vehicles. Management was also confident that they would meet all the targets that had been set for them and the future looked bright.

As workers told me when I returned there last week, they are doing real jobs in the real world. This is no soft option designed to keep disabled people busy. Remploy factories are businesses producing products that people want. The difference with other businesses is that, because of their nature, they operate with a government subsidy.

Remploy was set up under the 1944 Disabled Persons Employment Act by Ernest Bevin, who was then Minister of labour. The firm was formally founded in April 1945 and its first factory was opened in Bridgend in 1946. It made violins and furniture and many of the workers were disabled miners. Although the company came to be known as Remploy it was originally registered as the Ex-Services Employment Corporation.

Given the circumstances of my last visit, I was shocked to discover that the Bridgend factory was one of five in South Wales scheduled to be closed by Remploy last month. The company has changed the nature of its business in recent years, moving away from sheltered workshops into placing more disabled people into what they term 'mainstream employment'.

However, in my view and that of the workers there is still a place for the factories. Management do not disagree with that assessment but they argue that they are working with a limited subsidy and need to cut costs. Nevertheless my recent visit to the Bridgend factory has left me optimistic that it can be saved.

During that visit I met with the local Action Group of trade unions and with senior management. What was quite clear to me and to the Welsh Liberal Democrat Economic Development Spokesperson, Kirsty Williams, who accompanied me, is that the Remploy workers are carrying out high-quality and skilled work. There is good business being done already which might sustain the factory in the longer term but there are also new business opportunities on the horizon.

We have three months and what is needed is a period of concentrated action from all parties, including the Assembly Government, so as to use those opportunities to keep the factory open. We believe that the Bridgend operation is a sustainable business in the long-term and we are urging management to make every effort to secure it.