(27/10/2009)

Companies may face huge payouts after ruling for asbestos victims

Nestle and Esso are amongst a group of companies who are facing massive compensation payouts as a bill to help victims of asbestos-related conditions was presented to House of Lords.

The private members’ bill was passed through the House of Commons earlier this month, and will be brought before the House of Lords this week.

Last week a court ordered Esso to pay £300,000 to a widow who lost her husband to the acute asbestos disease mesothelioma. The victim died in September 2007, more than forty years after he worked at the Fawley oil refinery in Hampshire. Before his death he told of how workers at the plant would often have “snowball fights” with lumps of wet asbestos.

Nestle is facing a similar legal case from the daughter of an asbestos victim who died in September 2006, also of mesothelioma. The family are seeking up to £150,000 in compensation from the world’s biggest food company.

The GMB union is lobbying Parliament to overhaul compensation regulations for sufferers of pleural plaques, who are currently ineligible for compensation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland following a ruling in October 2007. Scotland has since overturned the ruling, and Northern Ireland is expected to do the same in the near future.

Trade unions believe that, should the ruling be overturned, insurance companies could be facing claims worth up to £1.4million.

Labour MP Andrew Dismore, who introduced the private members’ bill, has hit out at calls within the insurance industry for the bill to be upheld. He said: “The insurers took the premiums. They’ve had a windfall if there is no compensation scheme.

“The question is whether we can get [the bill] through the Lords in the next three weeks, before the session ends.”

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