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date: 20 June 2006

embargo 17.00hrs Tuesday 20 June 2006

Changes to Compensation Bill bring welcome relief to asbestos victims

Welcoming the announcement today (Tuesday) that the Government is to amend the Compensation Bill to reverse last month's House of Lords ruling that slashed the compensation payments made to mesothelioma sufferers and their families, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'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.'

Last month the House of Lords ruled that the compensation paid to the two Barker widows should be substantially reduced because some of the employers their husbands had worked for had since gone out of business. Only last week, whilst speaking at the GMB conference, the Prime Minister announced that the Government intended to act to put the Barker judgement right.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (400 words) issued 20 Jun 2006