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21 June 2006 - House of Lords Ruling
Reversed on Compensation Bill Welcomed by TUC
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The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has welcomed the news that the Government is
to amend the Compensation Bill to reverse last month's House of Lords ruling
that significantly reduced the compensation payments made to mesothelioma
sufferers and their families.
The House of Lords ruled that the compensation paid to two widows should be
substantially reduced due to the fact that some of the employers their husbands
had worked for had since gone out of business.
Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary commented:
"The Government is to be congratulated for acting to change the law so
speedily in the wake of the Barker judgement. Had this decision been allowed to
stand, the victims of this terrible disease and their families would have had to
wait an intolerable amount of time for compensation, and would have only been
eligible for a fraction of the compensation they should have received.
"Now the way stands open for employees who have become terminally ill and for
the families whose loved ones have had their lives cut short because of exposure
to asbestos to get the full compensation to which they are rightly entitled.
"We look forward to seeing the detail of the proposed amendment, and we will be
pushing ministers to make the changes retrospective so that neither the people
involved in the Barker case, Sylvia Barker and Mary Murray, nor any of the other
families adversely affected in the interim, lose out."
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