On the eve of one of the most highly anticipated annual meetings of the season, it’s virtually inevitable that Rio Tinto will suffer an embarrassing large vote against its remuneration report.

This will be a protest from major shareholders around the world who were livid over the generous parting gift, valued at $48 million, the Rio board awarded to the former chief executive Jean-Sebastian Jacques.

His resignation was forced by a large angry mob of shareholders who held him largely accountable for the cultural carnage resulting from blowing up Indigenous sacred sites in West Australia’s Juukan Gorge.

However, the Rio board saw fit to characterise Jacques and the two other senior executives shown the door following the crisis, Chris Salisbury and Simone Niven, as “good leavers”. This protected a large portion of the trio’s entitlements.

So it’s unsurprising that the mob is still carrying the voting pitchforks.

Already the large proxy advisory firms ISS Governance, Glass Lewis and the UK-based PIRC have recommended against the remuneration report as has the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors.

For the Rio board, it will be the first of two annual meetings it will have to endure over the next four weeks. Given it is the first time the board has faced the mass of angry small shareholders, both are set to be fiery affairs.

As a UK/Australia dual listed company, Rio will hold an annual meeting in London on Friday morning (Friday evening Australian time) and a second meeting in Australia next month.

Both sets of shareholders will vote, with the UK shareholders accounting for two-thirds of the vote and Australian shareholders accounting for the remainder.