19th April 2012

IMPORTANT UPDATE
Please circulate to all Remploy employees Dear Colleagues This is an official circular on behalf of the Consortium of Trade Unions to bring you up to date with recent meetings and events that have taken place since the announcement of the closure of Remploy. The trade unions have now met with the Company on four separate occasions. The trade unions have entered into discussions with the Company on the basis that they do not believe that the consultation is either fair or meaningful, and the decision to close Remploy factories in a two stage process had already been made by the government. The national Trade Union Officers, including TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber and GMB General Secretary, Paul Kenny recently met with Maria Miller MP and her advisors. It became clear that the government was determined to break all its financial links with Remploy. The Remploy conference in Blackpool took an overwhelming decision to fight the closures and to keep as many Remploy factories open as possible. Since meeting the Minister, Maria Miller we have learned that KPMG Consultants were engaged by the government in November 2011 to do a report that would form the basis for the closure programme. The trade unions were not aware of KPMGs investigations and report until they were informed at a meeting on the 14th March 2012. This was two months after the publication of that report. There had been no consultation and no discussion. As you are aware, the Company informed the trade unions on the 7th March 2012 that a closure programme would proceed and that consultation would start on the 19th March 2012. The Company has produced two lists of proposed closures; 36 factories to close by August 2012 and the other 18 factories to be either sold off or closed by April 2013. The 555m agreed with the previous government has been reduced to enable the privatisation of Employment Services which will possibly take until 2014. Disabled employees will have to pay for this privatisation with their jobs.

At a meeting on the 19th March 2012 the Company (Tim Matthews) confirmed to the Consortium of Trade Unions that if the 555m previously agreed had been used for what it was intended the whole company could have lived within its budgets until April 2013. The trade unions have challenged the right of the Company and government to make disabled people redundant The trade unions have produced evidence via the Accord to confirm this The trade unions have never been involved in discussions at any stage over the last 20 years to make disabled people compulsory redundant The trade unions have also challenged the validity of the HR1 which was given to the trade unions on the 19th March 2012 The trade unions have stated very clearly that the current offer on redundancy is not acceptable and falls well below what was previously agreed on the last two occasions The trade unions have challenged the Company on the cost of closing the pension fund as the trade unions believe this will rise to between 600m-700m a meeting on the 2nd May 2012 with the Pension Administrators will reveal more information The trade unions have questioned the Companys management regarding the completion of contracts and rejection of work The trade unions have highlighted the massive success of bringing trainees into Remploy (2,500 in the last 12 months) The trade unions asked the Company and management what plans they had to replace these opportunities if there were no factories for the trainees to attend The trade unions have also questioned proposals for any factory buy outs and asked what funding would be available if there were any potential employee cooperatives or social enterprises The trade unions have asked to see a breakdown of what cost the government has put on a disabled person being on benefits The Consortium of Trade Unions believe that if the 36 factory sites close down the actual cost would be in the region of 39m. The campaign in its first month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Over the last five weeks the Sunday Express has carried stories about Remploy and given massive support to our campaign Briefings have been sent to all MPs The Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament have been contacted and are supporting our campaign All GMB Regions are holding joint shop steward meetings and public meetings A demonstration took place outside the offices of the DWP on the 14th March 2012 A major demonstration was held in Wrexham on the 17th March 2012 North East demonstration and rally by local trade unions

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A demonstration took place on the 23rd March 2012 at a Sayce seminar in Edinburgh On the 27th/28th March 2012 over 70 shop stewards met for the national pay conference in Blackpool and held a demonstration outside local DWP offices A mass demonstration took place in Norwich on the 14th April 2012

Future Demonstrations for 2012 20th April 20th April 20th April 23rd April 26th April 9th May 18th May Sheffield London Edinburgh Regional shop stewards meeting South Wales Public meeting 6:30pm Faraday House, 48-51 Old Gloucester Road, London National lobby of Parliament, Westminster March, rally and public meeting

The Consortium of Trade Unions would like to thank the members and our supporters for all their hard work and terrific activity. The trade unions will continue to press for a fair solution and continue to fight to save the jobs of disabled people. Yours fraternally

PHIL DAVIES Secretary Remploy Consortium

KEVIN HEPWORTH Chair Remploy Consortium