Disabled workers take their jobs plea to Scottish Government
Disabled workers have taken the fight to save their jobs to the Scottish Parliament.
Almost 60 disabled and disadvantaged workers with Haven Products, in Larbert, Stirlingshire face being made redundant after the NHS and the Scottish Government withdrew two contracts to manufacture nurses’ uniforms and digitise Government documents.
In a briefing session for MSPs at Holyrood – organised by Labour MSP for Central Scotland, Richard Leonard – workers at Haven revealed that if the Government doesn’t renew the two contracts, or find alternative contracts by Christmas, the redundancy process will start early in January.
And to emphasise their plight, the workers’ delegation delivered a giant letter signed by all the staff to First Minister John Swinney – who officially opened the Haven Products factory in 2015 – urging him to step in and save their jobs.
Haven Products is an award-winning charity and Supported Business providing employment opportunities for people who are disabled and disadvantaged.
The loss of these contracts from the Scottish Government and the NHS amounts to an annual revenue loss of £2 million, which makes the business unsustainable and the factory now faces closure.
Haven Products has operated as a commercially viable and efficient business from its inception in 2014. Since then, their two biggest revenue streams have been the digitisation contract with the Scottish Government, which began six years ago and the NHS nurses’ uniform contract which started ten years ago.
However, the storage and digitisation contract with Haven was not renewed at the end of July 2024 after it was taken in-house by the Scottish Government.
At the same time the number of nurses uniforms Haven was asked to manufacture for the NHS was reduced and the charity was told there was no guarantee the contract, which ended on November 30, would be renewed.
And last month, Haven was told the devastating news that the contract to manufacture nurses uniforms was definitely being withdrawn.
Scottish Government Ministers were first told about the consequences of these contracts being cancelled in July, but it wasn’t until October 23 that a government short-life working group was set up to look into the Haven issue. So far, neither of the contracts has been renewed, nor new contracts forthcoming that would save the jobs of Haven’s disabled workforce.
Richard Leonard said: "I've been pressing the government for six months to act to save these jobs and, to date, nothing has changed. The time for words has long passed – it is time for action.
"The Scottish Government must step in and provide practical support to keep this factory open."
Head of Haven Products, Karen Motherwell said: “The clock is ticking and time is running out.
“If the NHS and Scottish government contracts aren’t renewed or alternative contracts found by Christmas, we’ll have no option but to start the redundancy process early in the New Year.”