Unite urges government to act on asbestos
October 10, 2008
The union Unite has urged the Government to take action to end the "compensation limbo" which it says asbestos victims are currently facing.
Unite says that a House of Lords ruling on negligence has affected thousands of people suffering from exposure to asbestos as a result of their working lives. The union is putting pressure on the Government to overturn the 2007 Law Lords' ruling to end a 20-year right for pleural plaques victims to receive compensation.
The 2007 case centred on whether pleural plaques was an injury for which damages could be claimed. However, to the fury of the unions, the Law Lords ruled that pleural plaques, which can be a forerunner of asbestosis and mesothelioma, was not a disease itself.
The unions have been campaigning vigorously to have the ruling overturned. Alternatively, Unite is urging the Government to establish immediately an employers' insurance scheme to provide sick workers with compensation to spare them a court fight for financial assistance.
The recommendations have been set out in the union's response to a recent Ministry of Justice consultation on pleural plaques.
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."
He added, "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."
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