by Keith Richmond
Construction union UCATT has angrily criticised proposals to deny compensation to the victims of pleural plaques as “disgraceful”.
The Government, reluctant to pay compensation to public sector workers exposed to asbestos in once nationalised industries such as shipbuilding, plans to compensate only those plaques victims who lodged a case before a Law Lords ruling in 2007. The decision is in stark contrast to that of the Scottish Parliament, which has passed a law to let victims living in Scotland receive compensation in full.
UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “The state employed these workers and exposed them to asbestos – now the state must pay their compensation. A failure to do so is morally indefensible.”
He added: “The Government intends to pay compensation, from an already severely overstretched public purse, to plaques victims when it is the insurers who are liable. Why on earth are the insurers not being made to pay?”
