A FACTORY employing disabled workers will close in the summer.
Remploy bosses have announced the Waterloo factory will close on August 8 with the loss of 31 jobs – and 28 of those are workers with a disability.
The factory, based at the Tandem Industrial Estate, off Wakefield Road in Waterloo, employed disabled people to make car interior trim for major car manufacturers.
Managers have been unable to find a buyer.
Government subsidy ends in September and the Department for Work and Pensions previously told the Examiner the Huddersfield factory lost £373,000 last year. They say that with 10,100 disabled people in the area they “need to make sure they get our support too”.
But a spokesman for the GMB Union said: “The company have now announced the closure of Remploy Huddersfield – this is very disappointing to say the least.
“The company have now set a closure date of August 8. Many of our 31 members in Huddersfield are going to struggle.”
“Many will spend a life on benefits after working all their lives with dignity.”
Remploy said their sales agent, KPMG, were working with businesses who bid for its furniture and CCTV businesses in Sheffield.
Remploy said: “While this is an encouraging step toward protecting jobs we cannot guarantee that it will be possible to complete transactions or how many jobs will be preserved, and all employees in the furniture and CCTV businesses remain at risk of redundancy”.
