Rio Tinto management refuses to provide information to the EWC
Alcan European Works Council press release
Following the hearing on the Rio Tinto tender offer for the Alcan Group, the employee representatives in the Alcan European Works Council (EWC) condemn the failure of Rio Tinto management to provide answers to the questions asked and to respond to the requests for commitments made at the meeting.
No real answers were provided to the questions about progress on the plan to divest Packaging, the future of the Engineered Products business group and of Research and Development, or to all the questions concerning the 31,000 employees in Europe.
Under these circumstances, the employee representatives in the Alcan EWC consider that they are not in a position to issue an opinion within the framework of the information-consultation procedure. They have therefore decided to re-submit their questions and requests to the management of Alcan and of Rio Tinto and to demand precise written commitments before the offer closes on 23 October. Such commitments have been made in Canada and what is possible on the other side of the Atlantic must also be possible in Europe.
In doing so, the EWC employee representatives aim to obtain compliance with their right to information enabling them to:
Should this request for information not be met, they are determined to demand compliance with the attributions of the European Works Council and to call for all employees of the European sites to mobilise.
