JOBS could go at a Huddersfield factory employing disabled people.
Remploy, which has about 35 workers at its Waterloo plant, has announced job losses nationally.
And the calls for voluntary redundancies among staff at a firm employing mainly disabled workers could result in around 1,500 job losses, union leaders warned.
Remploy said it was constantly seeking to improve efficiency, adding that the scheme being offered to staff in its Enterprise Businesses and Central Service was “entirely voluntary”.
The firm said its factory businesses had suffered under the current economic climate, with many operating at less than 50% capacity.
The staff at the Waterloo site produce goods for many industries.
The factory, which has been open since 1970, employs 35 people and makes car seat covers and vehicle interior trim parts as well as office furniture upholstery.
A company spokesman confirmed the Waterloo factory was included in the job-loss scheme and said: “Remploy is not fulfilling its mission to provide sustainable employment opportunities for disabled people.
“We will ensure that any employee who decides to leave and wants to continue working will have guaranteed support from our employment services to find another job.”
GMB national officer Phil Davies said: “The factory sites have since been starved of work because of an incompetent and overpaid management. This is in spite of the fact that the EU allows public authorities to place one contract with a supported workshop but the management have failed to take advantage of this provision.
“The trade unions will not accept this situation and will fight to stop the sell-off of disabled jobs. This is the harshest cut of all that this Government has proposed. To make things worse the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, publicly pledged his full support in 2008 to stop any Remploy factory closures.”
