WORKERS at Remploy have launched a petition over fears it may cut jobs or close down one of its North-East sites.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is reviewing how Remploy operates after a report by the National Audit Office recognised that some of its factory businesses were not financially sustainable.

The review is expected to be completed by the end of this month and a spokeswoman for Remploy said decisions would be made after that. She said any talk of job cuts or factory closures was "purely speculation".

However, many of the 82 disabled employees at Remploy's Hartlepool site have signed a petition urging the review team not to change the existing structure.

The petition reads: "We urge the Government and the review team, who are currently reviewing the function of Remploy's factories, to retain the employment of their disabled employees within their current factory network."

Paul Jamieson, who has learning difficulties and has relied on Remploy for employment over the past 28 years, has signed the petition.

His mother, Mary Marshall, said: "I think it is a great possibility that Remploy will close some of the factories down. They have messed us about before. This is not the first time we have been under a cloud.

"The Hartlepool site has been threatened with closure in the past and I think this is the end of the road."

However, Remploy chief executive Bob Warner said: "Whatever emerges from the review, it is Remploy's intention that it will not withdraw from any community where it has a presence and we will seek to ensure that no disabled factory employee will be made compulsorily redundant."

He said the review will help Remploy operate more effectively and increase the number of jobs it provides for disabled people.

Remploy is a registered charity and last year received £111m in Government funding. Its 83 sites nationwide have a combined turnover of £165m and employ 5,442 disabled and able-bodied staff.

Across the region, Remploy has sites in Newcastle, Gateshead, Jarrow, Sunderland, Spennymoor, Hartlepool, Stockton and York, employing almost 500 people.