Compensation claims ‘must be allowed for pleural plaque victims’

Posted 17/09/2009

A union has called on the government to permit workers suffering from -related pleural plaques to make compensation claims.

The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (Ucatt) has urged parliament to lift its ban on compensation claims for those inflicted by the industrial disease, which was implemented by the House of Lords.

It has already won support in its campaign from the Trades Union Congress, which unanimously backed its motion to have the ban overturned.

Moreover, prime minister Gordon Brown has subsequently vowed that the government will “look [at] what we can do” about the issue, with a parliamentary statement due to be made after the summer recess.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of Ucatt, said that the union will expend all of its efforts to have the right to compensation reinstated.

He said: “The government must understand that if they want to be seen as the champions of social justice then they must restore full compensation.”

According to Health and Safety Executive statistics, around 4,000 people die each year as a result of diseases caused by work with .