Closure of Remploy factories will devastate the lives of hundreds of disabled workers
‘We’ve no chance. I can’t see myself working again’
Irshad Mohammed tells Charlie Cooper the closure of Remploy factories will devastate the lives of hundreds of disabled workers
Irshad Mohammed will always remember the moment he lost the job of 35 years at the Remploy factory in Acton, one of 54 such workplaces in the UK that specialise in employment for the disabled. On Wednesday afternoon, at 2pm, he and his colleagues were told that their factory was shutting down. Thirty-five others are set to close across the company, with the loss of more than 1,700 jobs.
“We thought there would be some closures, but never on such a scale,” Mr Mohammed, 54, told The Independent. “We thought that at least one London branch would stay open. But all three – Barking, north London and Acton – will close. I argued with the management on the day. I said: ‘Look at what you are doing. You say that disabled people should get work at normal factories but there is widespread unemployment out there. There are students with degrees who cannot get jobs. We will have no chance’.”
CARE OF DEMENTIA PATIENTS ‘BEGGARS BELIEF’ SAYS FIONA PHILLIPS
TV presenter Fiona Phillips yesterday condemned the care of Alzheimer’s patients in Britain and said it “beggars belief” that sufferers are left to “get on with it” without proper support.
Saturday March 10,2012
By Jo Wiley
The former GMTV host spoke movingly of her own plight dealing with the disease just weeks after the death of her beloved father Neville.
Speaking at an international conference on Alzheimer’s, she says she feels he was let down at the end of his life.
He was left a shadow of his former self, “totally out of it” on a cocktail of “chemical cosh” dementia drugs.
