Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsEmployee relationsTrade unions

Unions call for Remploy HR team to resign after factory closures were announced to staff by DVD

by Greg Pitcher 8 Jun 2007
by Greg Pitcher 8 Jun 2007

Unions have called for the resignation of all 47 HR professionals at Remploy after it announced factory closures by DVD.


The publicly funded body, which provides jobs for disabled people, is cutting the subsidised jobs to focus on placing 20,000 disabled people a year into mainstream employment by 2010.


Les Woodward, national Remploy convener for the GMB union, told Personnel Today: “The situation has been totally mismanaged by HR. The best thing the HR team can do is resign.”


More than 2,000 mainly disabled staff will be affected when 32 manufacturing sites are closed and 11 are merged with others. A private counselling company was called in to break the news last month.


“Bringing in the counselling company made the situation worse. At one site, there were 96 questions asked, and not one was answered,” said Woodward.


“The news was broken by DVD – the HR team did not have the common decency to speak to people face to face.”


Phil Davies, head of the Remploy union consortium, claimed the organisation’s HR team, led by Anne Jessop, was one of the worst in the country.


“We know more about the employees than the HR department, which can’t be right,” he said. “There is no disability awareness. They need to take a more personal approach.” Davies added that the use of the DVD was “a lesson in how not to consult with workers”.


A vote will be held today (Tuesday) on strike action over the closures. Staff occupation of the sites as part of a protest is also a possibility, according to the unions.


A Remploy spokeswoman insisted senior managers did deliver the message personally, as well as using DVDs and letters. “We always use a range of tools and techniques to ensure everyone has every opportunity to understand the messages,” she said.

Avatar
Greg Pitcher

previous post
Mercer HR research finds UK has least holiday entitlement in Europe
next post
Have a rant: Logos

You may also like

Who is on strike and when?

6 Feb 2023

Maternity protection bill steps closer to becoming law

6 Feb 2023

Prosecuting barristers’ pay increases 15%

6 Feb 2023

Burnout and stress cost NHS more working days...

6 Feb 2023

National Apprenticeship Week 2023: Who’s hiring?

6 Feb 2023

Ex-soldier awarded £350k compensation for hearing loss

6 Feb 2023

Three-quarters of ethnic minorities don’t have a workplace...

6 Feb 2023

Hybrid working and tax: what employers need to...

3 Feb 2023

Carer’s Leave Bill passed by MPs

3 Feb 2023

Workplace couture prompts awkward questions

3 Feb 2023

  • The Workplace Today Guide: Why it pays to support your staff’s financial health PROMOTED | The cost of living crisis has hit...Read more
  • abrdn pensions master trust: an enhanced member experience PROMOTED | For most people, their pension will be the largest source of income in retirement...Read more
  • How can HR equip leaders to support a wounded workforce? PROMOTED | The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released new guidelines for employers...Read more
  • How HR manages absence and hybrid working (survey) WEBINAR | HR professionals are slowly realising...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+