LONDON, October 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of people suffering from exposure to asbestos during their working lives are stuck in 'compensation limbo' as a result of a House of Lords ruling on negligence, according to Unite, the UK's biggest union.

Unite is urging the Government to overturn a disastrous 2007 Law Lords' ruling to end a 20 year right for pleural plaques victims to receive compensation - or if it will not do that, to establish immediately an employer's insurance scheme to provide sick workers with compensation so sparing them the further pain of a court fight for financial assistance.

The recommendations are set out in Unite's response to the Ministry of Justice's consultation on pleural plaques. Victims acquire the disease as a result of negligent exposure to asbestos dust while at work. Unite had backed its members in the face of the test cases brought by insurance companies and employers to avoid their responsibility for an established right to compensation.

According to Derek Simpson, Unite Joint General Secretary: "The Law Lords' ruling was a disaster for working people. Overnight, thousands of seriously wronged workers were plunged into a compensation limbo - knowing they had a 1 in 20 chance of serious injury and death through their employer's negligence but now denied justice. This ruling must be overturned.

"There is only one cause of this disease and that is the widespread, indiscriminate use of asbestos throughout industry for years. No one protected our people from this exposure, and now they are suffering. Employer's insurers simply want to walk away leaving workers, whose lungs are now full of asbestos, facing a lifetime of worry and not a penny in compensation. This is not right.

"Compensation must come from those who put them at risk in the first place, and from an insurance industry which made money from that risk.

"But it is clear that neither employers nor the insurance industry will do right by these workers so we need our Government to make them."

Unite is pressing for last year's Law Lords judgement to be thrown out by the Government, but is also calling for an insurance scheme to be established, similar to that established to protect drivers from uninsured drivers. This would be funded by employers and would ensure that proper damages are awarded to asbestos-exposed workers.

Pleural plaques victims have a 1 in 20 chance of going on to develop an asbestos-related disease that will kill them. People born in the 40s who were heavily exposed to asbestos have less of a chance of developing a more serious asbestos related disease than those diagnosed with pleural plaques.

The Law Lords have attempted to justify their ruling by asserting that it would keep the fundamental law of negligence intact. However, Unite feels that it has had the opposite effect with the case now being cited to defend claims involving other diseases.

Notes to Editors

Pleural plaques are areas of fibrosis present on the inner surface of the ribcage and the diaphragm. The cause is from asbestos exposure.

Copies of the Unite submission are available at http://www.amicustheunion.org/Default.aspx?page=9357

For further information contact: Jody Whitehill, Unite Press Officer. +44-207-420-8938 or +44-7768-693956