Gimme shelter!

Do the economics of sheltered work for people with disabilities add up? Remploy´s recent urgent restructuring raises profound questions about whether this is something the workplace can afford to offer. Remploy insiders are weary of trying to counter their image as wheelchair-bound basket weavers. They point to 10 divisions which include a tier-one supplier to Honda, BMW, Jaguar, Lotus, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Volvo and JCB. The furniture offshoot makes one in three school desks, supplies halls of residence, and has won a contract to furnish over 700 rooms at Carillon´s Salford Quays development in Manchester, UK. The air filtersit makes in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, supply nuclear power stations and operating theatres. But Remploy is swinging hard from manufacturing to services, concentrating particularly on the Employment Services unit charged with finding mainstream jobs for disabled clients. In present conditions, Remploy´s industrial customers have cause to wonder how long Remploy can survive.