Unions lobby MPs over asbestos pay-outs

Published on Monday 27 October 2008 21:22

HUNDREDS of trade union activists will lobby MPs today to demand the restoration of compensation for people suffering an asbestos-related disease.

Officials will warn that thousands of workers with pleural plaques – scar tissue on the lung, commonly caused by occupational exposure to asbestos – have been left in "compensation limbo" after a controversial ruling by the House of Lords last year. Alan Ritchie, general secretary of the construction workers union, Ucatt, said: "Pleural plaques victims must receive justice.

"The Law Lords decision was a disgrace; the government must have the courage to reverse the decision and reinstate the right of those suffering from pleural plaques to receive compensation."

Another union, Unite, said sufferers were facing the "twin blows" of knowing they had a very high risk of developing an asbestos-related disease that would kill them, and the denial of compensation.

Unite, Ucatt and the GMB will lobby parliament to try to persuade the government to overturn the Lords ruling.