Construction workers to lobby for £1.4bn compensation

Construction workers in the UK are to lobby the government for compensation over the industrial disease pleural plaques.

This week, workers will target the constituencies of cabinet ministers David Miliband and John Hutton in a bid to persuade the Labour administration to rule that the insurance industry should pay out £1.4 billion to sufferers of the condition.

Commenting on the initiative, Alan Ritchie, general secretary of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians, said: "The insurance industry seems intent on dismantling the industrial injury compensation system and it has to be fought."

Last year, the Lords ruled that pleural plaques do not merit compensation.

However, a new bill in Scotland is to give pleural plaques sufferers in the country the right to sue for compensation.

A scarring of the lungs, the condition is caused by previous exposure to the hazardous insulating material asbestos.

14/07/2008 16:40