HUNDREDS of workers at Northumberland’s biggest private sector employer are set to leave in three months’ time as detailed discussions on its planned closure near completion.
A formal consultation on the proposed shutdown of the 512-job Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter at Lynemouth ends next week.
With no potential saviour having come forward for the plant, it is expected that a closure programme will now be confirmed and the vast majority of the workforce given 12 weeks’ notice.
The Lynemouth casting house is expected to continue operating – possibly until the end of this year and with a much-reduced staffing level – to fulfil existing commitments to customers, and the carbon plant will be mothballed rather than immediately de-commissioned.
Yesterday Keir Howe, regional officer with the GMB union, said: “We have two further consultation meetings, one tomorrow and the other on February 29, when the consultation ends. The company says it is looking to issue notices in the first two weeks of March.
“Not everyone will leave at the same time, because some areas of the operation will run for a month or for the rest of the year, but most will go by the end of May.”
Yesterday corporate affairs director, John McCabe, said: “We are preparing for the closure of the plant, and that would only change if there was any credible interest in the smelter, which there hasn’t been.” He said Rio Tinto Alcan is still in discussions with a potential buyer for the power station, and also with regulatory authorities and the Government, on the implications for a standalone generating plant.
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