A factory employing 29 disabled people in Bradford is to close.

Remploy, the UK's largest employer of disabled people, is shutting its plant in Bowling Back Lane as part of a swathe of closures across the country.

A company statement said that no compulsory redundancies will be made but any employees who want to retain their present terms and conditions will have to find work with another employer.

The other options made available to staff are to opt for voluntary redundancy or to retire early with a voluntary redundancy payment. A counsellor will be available to offer support.

Remploy bosses say the Bradford factory, a electrical goods recycling business, is losing more than £600,000 a year.

They say they want to replace it with a recruitment centre as part of a five-year plan to increase the number of disabled people that it helps find work in mainstream employment.

However, unions have attacked the plans, stating that the company is "stabbing the Remploy workforce in the back" and they have threatened strike action in a bid to keep the factory open.

Steve Morris, Yorkshire region organiser for the GMB union, said: "To close the factory at Bowling Back Lane would be an abomination.

"The Bradford factory was due to close in 2000 and we fought successfully against the closure then.

"Bradford is the fourth largest metropolitan district in the country and the factory is home to people with all levels of disability and provides a plethora of work for people.

"They could now be faced with increased journeys to and from work.

"We want disabled people in our area of the country to have the option of working in sheltered accommodation or working in mainstream employment."

The Bowling Back Lane site will be one of 43 factories to close nationwide in a move which will affect 2,270 disabled employees and 280 non-disabled workers.

A group of Remploy workers, some in wheelchairs, staged a protest outside a central London hotel where Remploy officials made the announcement today.

They held banners which read "Save our Factories" and shouted that they wanted to keep their jobs.

Alan Hill, Remploy's director of product businesses, said: "We were set twin objectives by the Government to help many more disabled people into work each year and to keep within a funding limit of £555 million over the next five years.

"The plans we are announcing meet those objectives and we will now seek to work with the trade unions and to consult with our employees and disability groups over the coming months.

"We want to provide disabled people in the area with the right support to find real jobs and we will be working with local employers to ensure disabled job seekers have the skills they need."

No-one at the Bradford factory was available for comment.

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe said: "We are concerned that Remploy as a business is not able to be viable, but we want to make sure that people are protected in terms of wages and their pension rights.

"We will be talking to ministers over the 90 days to see what can be done."

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