FIVE hundred workers with disabilities across the region face losing their jobs as Remploy factories come under threat of closure, a union official warned last night.

GMB branch secretary Kenneth Stubbs said the Government's review of Remploy would inevitably lead to cut-backs and he fears factories in the North-East have "a very limited shelf-life".

Mr Stubbs has spoken out because many of the workers that he represents depend on Government-funded Remploy for employment and he said they were concerned about the future.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is reviewing how Remploy operates after a report by the National Audit Office found that some of its 82 factory businesses were not financially sustainable.

Remploy has eight regional factories, in Newcastle, Gateshead, Jarrow, Sunderland, Spennymoor, in County Durham, Hartlepool, Stockton and York, employing more than 500 people.

Last week, The Northern Echo reported that workers in Hartlepool had launched a petition amid concerns about the factory's future. A campaign has been launched and a region-wide petition will also be sent to the review board before the end of the month.

When the review was launched in March, Minister for Disabled People Anne McGuire said Remploy needed to change, with more emphasis on integrating disabled employees into mainstream workplaces. The company employs 5,442 workers in its UK factories and found work for another 4,300 through its Interwork placement scheme.

Remploy's factory business costs are about £19,000 per person, whereas the cost to put somebody through the Interwork programme is £3,400.

Yesterday, Remploy said its priority was to find work for disabled people and said that any suggestion of factory closures was pure speculation.

Chief executive Bob Warner said: "We are expanding the number of jobs that we find for disabled people and plan to continue to do so.

"In fact, by the year 2010, Remploy will be finding jobs in mainstream employment for 20,000 disabled people every year - four times as many as we achieved last year.

"The core issue is that each job in our factories costs an average of £19,000 a year, for which we can find four jobs every year for disabled people with other employers."

Mr Stubbs warned that, while work placements may seem more cost-effective, the reality was that employees faced an uncertain future.

"The company has left severely disabled workers at Remploy in no doubt whatsoever that support for the Remploy factory network has been all but abandoned," he said.

"The conclusion must be, as far as the company is concerned, that Remploy factories have a very limited shelf life and, after the review, closures are inevitable."