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Steel maker Corus rebuffs union demands for Moffat to be sent off

Michael Harrison,Business Editor
Tuesday 15 April 2003 00:00 BST
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Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steel maker, ignored a European-wide day of protest yesterday bythousands of workers demanding the immediate resignation of its executive chairman Sir Brian Moffat.

The embattled company, which warned two months ago of further heavy job losses and UK plant closures, said Sir Brian would neither resign, nor agree to a pay freeze, nor inform shareholders and employees now of what he would be receiving for carrying out the twin jobs of chairman and chief executive.

The company's stand followed a day of "red card" protests outside Corus plants in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium over Sir Brian's "disastrous" stewardship of Corus. "Sir Brain Moffat has led the company into crisis and we demand that he must now go," Michael Leahy, general secretary of Britain's ISTC steel union, said.

Mr Leahy has been demanding the resignation of Sir Brian since Corus sacked its chief executive,Tony Pedder, last month after being forced to abandon the sale of its aluminium business to Pechiney of France. It is now in refinancing talks with its banks while its shares have slumped in value by 90 per cent over the past 12 months.

Corus said Sir Brian would not step down until it had found both a new chief executive and a new chairman adding that his role at present was to "ensure stability and continuity".

According to the ISTC, the last time Sir Brian combined the two jobs in 2001 he received a 130 per cent pay increase which, together with the pension that he now draws, put him on a package worth £900,000 a year.

Corus declined to say what Sir Brian's salary this year would be and said there was no intention of divulging it until the annual report came out next April.

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