A COMPANY which employs disabled people is closing its factory.

Remploy, which provides employment services for disabled people, has announced its plans to close 43 sites and merge a further 11 nationwide.

Its Woolwich site, in Nathan Way, which employs 41 disabled people, is losing more than £1m a year.

It will be replaced with a recruitment branch offering a range of employment opportunities and learning and development services for disabled people.

Workers at the Nathan Way site will be offered the option of transferring to Remploy's Barking factory.

The company has promised no disabled employees will be made redundant.

Its Woolwich factory, which opened in 1976, is part of Remploy's electronic and electrical recycling business, which will be transferred to four larger sites, including Barking.

The company says the moves are part of changes which will eventually more than quadruple the number of jobs it finds for disabled people in mainstream employment.

A professional counsellor will be made available to employees affected by the move.

Employees will be able to remain a Remploy worker on their present terms and conditions or work for other employers.

They can also opt for voluntary redundancy or early retirement.

Remploy's director of product businesses Alan Hill 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 £555m over the next five years.

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

According to the firm, 2,270 disabled people and 280 non-disabled workers will be affected by the closures across England, Scotland and Wales.

Disabled charities Leonard Cheshire, Radar, Mencap, Mind, Royal National Institute for Deaf People and Scope are also in favour of the closures.

Jenny Formby is national officer for the transport and general workers' section of trade union Unite and chairman of the Remploy Trade Union Consortium.

She said: "The sheer scale of the closures and its impact on disabled workers is both shocking and unprecedented.

"The grotesque spectacle of six organisations, purporting to represent disabled people, supporting these job losses is outrageous and equally shocking. It will not pass unchallenged."