A WORKER who went on holiday returned to find his belongings thrown out.
Senior union shop steward Paul Bragg had led the fight to save Remploy’s Wallasey Central Cutting Unit (CCU), which employs disabled people.
The factory closed earlier this month – more than three weeks earlier than expected – after it was axed as part of cost-cutting measures by the company.
But Paul Bragg, said he returned from holiday on Sunday to be told all his personal effects and years of union paperwork stored in his work locker had been thrown out.
He said: “I’ve been fighting for five years to save the Central Cutting Unit, and after I had my final consultation and they said the factory would close on March 31, I decided to get away from it for a bit, and take a holiday.
“I had hoped to be able to come back and finish off whatever needed to be done in the last two weeks of March, and say goodbye to people I had worked with, some for 20 years.
“Instead I got a text while I was away saying they had brought the closure forward and shut the factory, sending people home on March 6.”
His locker was a larger container in which he stored his work clothes as well as union-related paperwork and other personal items, including some he described as “quite expensive”.
He said he contacted the company on Monday to be told “everything had been thrown away”.
He said: “I’ve given 20 years of loyal service to this company and for them to treat me like this – I’m quivering with anger. They knew I was on holiday.
“They should have given me the opportunity to come down and get my things – it was only a matter of a few days.”
Local councillor Leah Fraser, who has supported the campaign to save the factory, said Remploy management have treated the 43 workers at the CCU in Wallasey “with complete contempt since the closure was announced”. She added: “They should have been treated with more dignity than this. However, nothing that this Government does or Remploy bosses do, would surprise me now.”
According to Remploy, of the 40 employees at the CCU, four transferred to the other Birkenhead site, 22 took voluntary redundancy, 13 took early retirement and there was one compulsory redundancy of a non-disabled employee.
Industrial action was held by Remploy workers facing factory closures throughout February in protest at the closure plans.
They were furious at the decision made by former Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain, who at first appeared to put a block on the closures during last year’s Labour Party conference, stating there would be no closures without ministerial approval.
But late last year it was announced 28 plants employing more than 1,600 workers would close.
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