Take asbestos victims out of compensation limbo, Unite
urges government
1 October 2008
Thousands of people suffering from exposure to asbestos during
their working lives are stuck in "compensation limbo" as a result
of a House of Lords ruling on negligence, according to Unite, the
UK’s biggest union.
Unite is urging the Government to overturn a disastrous 2007 Law
Lords’ ruling to end a 20 year right for pleural plaques victims to
receive compensation - or if it will not do that, to establish
immediately an employers’ insurance scheme to provide sick workers
with compensation so sparing them the further pain of a court fight
for financial assistance.
The recommendations are set out in Unite’s response to the
Ministry of Justice’s consultation on pleural plaques.
Victims acquire the disease as a result of negligent exposure to
asbestos dust while at work. Unite had backed its members in
the face of the test cases brought by insurance companies and
employers to avoid their responsibility for an established right to
compensation.
According to Derek Simpson, Unite Joint General Secretary: "The
Law Lords’ ruling was a disaster for working people.
Overnight, thousands of seriously wronged workers were plunged into
a compensation limbo –knowing they had a 1 in 20 chance of serious
injury and death through their employers’ negligence but now denied
justice. This ruling must be overturned.
"There is only one cause of this disease and that is the
widespread, indiscriminate use of asbestos throughout industry for
years. No one protected our people from this exposure, and now they
are suffering. Employers’ insurers simply want to walk away leaving
workers, whose lungs are now full of asbestos, facing a lifetime of
worry and not a penny in compensation. This is not right.
"Compensation must come from those who put them at risk in the
first place, and from an insurance industry which made money from
that risk.
"But it is clear that neither employers nor the insurance
industry will do right by these workers so we need our government
to make them."Unite is pressing for last year’s Law Lords judgement
to be thrown out by the government, but is also calling for an
insurance scheme to be established, similar to that established to
protect drivers from uninsured drivers. This would be funded
by employers and would ensure that proper damages are awarded to
asbestos-exposed workers.
Pleural plaques victims have a 1 in 20 chance of going on to
develop an asbestos- related disease that will kill them. People
born in the 40s who were heavily exposed to asbestos have less of a
chance of developing a more serious asbestos related disease than
those diagnosed with pleural plaques.
The Law Lords have attempted to justify their ruling by
asserting that it would keep the fundamental law of negligence
intact. However, Unite feels that it has had the opposite
effect with the case now being cited to defend claims involving
other diseases.
ENDS
Notes to Editor’s
Pleural plaques are areas of fibrosis present on the inner
surface of the ribcage and the diaphragm. The cause is from
asbestos exposure.
Copies of the Unite
submission are available here
