Asbestos victims take compo protest to the company

Date	11 Feb 2002
Time	2.00pm
Venue	Churchill Auditorium, The Queen Elizabeth Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London

Photo/film oppportunity: Asbestos disease victims, their families and asbestos campaigners will be available for filming and interview.

Angry asbestos victims robbed of their compensation, their fatalities and campaigners will lobby the first major Turner & Newall creditors meeting on Monday, 11th February. They will be handing in a letter of protest to the Administrators and demanding information about Turner & Newall's insurers.

The insolvency of Turner & Newall once the UK's largest asbestos manufacturer, caused by the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy of the parent company, Federal Mogul, has meant that the company can keep on trading and making profits while halting all compensation payments to asbestos victims.

The company refuses to disclose information about its insurers, hiding behind the cloak of commercial confidentiality. Worse still, there is increasing evidence that Turner & Newall did not have insurance in compliance with the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. This is a scandal.

Asbestos victims and their families are demanding that the Government investigate Turner & Newall's insurance arrangements and that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is opened up to Turner & Newall claimants. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is funded by the insurance industry and pays out where an employer is insolvent and the insurer is also insolvent. It is feared that Turner & Newall may not have had 'authorised' insurance or even none at all, thereby denying claimants protection under the scheme.

There are approximately 400 Turner & Newall compensation claims each year, easily funded by the company and possibly by their insurance..

Some Turner & Newall claimants with mesothelioma will also be caught by the recent Fairchild decision which robs them of compensation where there is more than one negligent employer. The House of Lords must end this legal nonsense which allows guilty employers to walk away from their responsibilities. It is bad enough that they have killed countless numbers of workers, without adding insult to injury by withholding compensation. They should be thrown in jail by the Courts, not let off the hook.

Tony Lloyd MP, Central Manchester constituency, who worked at Turner & Newall and who, in an adjournment debate described guilty employers as, "corporate fat cats who, living successfully themselves, have been quite prepared to dismiss with absolute contempt the needs of some of the most victimised people in society".

Contacts

Tony Whitston Hazards Campaign 0161 953 4037
John Flanangan, Merseyside Asbestos Victims 0151 236 1895, 0774 8491 714 (mobile)
Tony O'Brien, Construction Safety Campaign 077 477 95954 (mobile)

1. Mesothelioma is a fatal tumour of the lining of the lung caused
exclusively by asbestos. About 1,500 people die from this disease each year. Average life expectancy from diagnosis is 18 months. Most mesothelioma sufferers will have worked for more than one employer.