'It's been like a family to us'

HER face beams out from the Remploy website. Radiating happiness, Jane Martin is the epitome of everything good the organisation has done throughout its 63 years helping people with disabilities find work.

Jane, 27, who has cerebral palsy, was referred to Remploy after seeking advice on working at a JobCentre in Stockton. It was Remploy which helped her find work with retail giant M&S after training her in key skills for the industry. Her Christmas job as a customer assistant was later confirmed as permanent.

"I knew I could be as good as anyone else, but it took a long time to convince employers," she says. "I now have a reason to get up in the morning."

And there are thousands of others like Jane, each with a similar story to tell, how the organisation has boosted their self-esteem and confidence in order for them to find fulfilling work.

Only for the many who are employed at 32 of the organisation's factories - which were targeted for closure yesterday - their happiness has been drastically affected.

Remploy was set up under the 1944 Disabled Persons (Employment) Act by Ernest Bevin, who was then Minister of Labour. The company was formally founded in April 1945 with the first factory opening the following year.

Many of the workers were disabled former miners who went on to make furniture and violins at the factory in Bridgend in South Wales. Its title was derived from the word re-employ.

The organisation went on to develop a factory network across the UK. Employees worked in the manufacture of school furniture, motor components and chemical, biological and nuclear protection suits for police and military in Britain and overseas. It had contracts to supply household names such as Ford, Lever Brothers and MG Rover. Within the North-East, at Spennymoor for example, there was outsourced assembly work, such as that from the neighbouring former Smart and Brown plant and the Electrolux factory.

But with the decline in manufacturing came fresh thinking and expansion into the service sector, creating businesses such as E-Cycle and Remploy Offiscope.

The lucrative recycling market included working with retailers such as Dixons and Comet repairing old washing machines, which would then be serviced and sold to low-income families through charity shops. It also had a contract with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Inland Revenue to overhaul their computers. But the organisation was always aware it would have to move with the times.

Bob Warner, group chief executive, told The Northern Echo two years ago: "We have been predominantly a manufacturing business and we have suffered over the last five years like the rest of manufacturing.

"We have tried to move into the service sector with the likes of the white goods recycling.

"The way that manufacturing has gone, our contract service has had to specialise in items that are either too bulky and costly for firms to ship in from far-flung places, or we offer a bespoke service that is fast and flexible."

But with the recent changes in the Disability Discrimination Act - requiring businesses to take measures to ensure their premises are wheelchair friendly in 2004 - there was a shift towards workplaces integrating everyone.

With Remploy, the move toward training people for mainstream employment began in 1988. In the past, it had been accused of employing people in its factories, but not doing a great deal of training.

Between 2003 and 2005, Remploy Spennymoor had helped 400 people find employment outside of the factory with good links placing trainees with large organisations such as BT, Sainsbury's and Asda. Nationally last year, it helped 5,000 disabled job seekers find work with employers such as Tesco and TK Maxx.

The aim now, is to increase that figure to 20,000 workers per year - hence the closure of the factories. Instead, it is opening more city-centre branches offering services such as Learning and Returning to Work courses. The first of these centres have already opened in Birmingham, Plymouth, Leeds, Leicester and Nottingham.

But many Remploy factory workers feel they will not fit into mainstream employment citing that there isn't the infrastructure to help people get into it or the environments set up to cater for various disabilities, despite the Disability Discrimination Act.

"It sounds good but it is unrealistic," says one Remploy worker, who does not want to be named. "Some factories aren't adapted to cater for wheelchairs, hearing and sight impairments or other disabilities. Even if we find work elsewhere we will be 'different' to the other workers so we're set up to fail."

Another worker adds: "We all want to work for a living but pushing us into mainstream work after all these years will push us onto the dole."

"The working environment won't be as supportive, able bodied colleagues just cannot understand and will soon get fed up of making allowances for us and find a way to get rid."

There are also many long-serving workers at the factories. In Spennymoor, they feel their commitment demonstrates their enthusiasm and loyalty to the factory.

One worker says: "Most have worked there 15 to 45 years, you don't get that in many mainstream places. It's been like a family to us.

"No one is better than anyone else and we are all supportive, we will really miss that once we are split up and some will lose their enthusiasm to work."

But for others, there is the simple factor of age, regardless of disability. Ken Stubbs has worked for Remploy since 1978 and is the Spennymoor factory's safety officer. He is also now 57.

"If I start looking for a job now I'll face the same problem that anybody of 57 would face trying to find a job," he says. "I think only a small number of us will be able to get other jobs.