§ Mr. Matthew Taylor (Truro)I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 20, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely,
the sale by Rio Tinto Zinc, with Government backing, of its Cornish tin mining interests, resulting in 200 redundancies, and its relation to the agreement established in 1986 with the Government to maintain jobs and investment on a five-year programme.Yesterday, Rio Tinto Zinc and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster announced the sale of Carnon Consolidated Ltd., which currently runs RTZ's tin mines in Cornwall. This has resulted in the proposed redundancy of 200 of the present 720 staff and a compulsory wage cut of 8 per cent. for the remainder. The decision has been dressed up in terms of a management and worker buy-out. However, the reality is that the workers will have access to only 20 per cent. of the shares, which will be held in a trust and will not be freely available to the work force, and the terms of the agreements with RTZ and the Government remain unclear.It is vital that we have an opportunity to debate this issue. The matter is urgent because there will be no obvious alternative employment for those 200 workers if the company and the Government do not change their minds. The matter is specific because, in 1986, the Government agreed to provide the RTZ Corporation with an interest-free loan of up to £15 million and guarantee of commercial loans of up to £10 million to assist a capital development programme covering the next five years. The Government recognised in the past that the low prices could not last in the long term and that jobs and the interests in tin should be saved, but now jobs are going, purely because of continued short-term price shortfalls.
The House should have an opportunity to discuss this issue now, especially since the original terms of the Government aid have been broken and further Government support is involved. The House should have an opportunity to ensure that Government money has been and is being properly used. I ask you for a debate, Mr. Speaker, especially on behalf of those 200 Cornish workers and their families who deserve better treatment, after their efforts in saving the industry, than weeks of speculation, no consultation and now the heavy blow of job losses.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Truro (Mr. Taylor) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he believes should have urgent consideration, namely,
the sale by Rio Tinto Zinc, with Government backing, of its Cornish tin mining interests, resulting in 200 redundancies, and its relation to the agreement established in 1986 with the Government to maintain jobs and investment on a five-year programme.I have listened with concern to what the hon. Member has said on behalf of his constituents, but I regret that I do not think that the matter is appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 20. I therefore cannot submit his application to the House. However, I hope that the hon. Member will find other ways to raise the matter here.