"Very unfair if we don't introduce asbestos compensation scheme"

Monday 17 June 2019

A long-time campaigner for greater support for people with asbestos-related illnesses is stepping up efforts to get a compensation scheme in place in the next 12 months.

Deputy Matt Fallaize helped to develop the idea for financial support whilst a member of Employment & Social Security.

Although no longer on the committee, he said such a scheme is much-needed and that it will reflect badly on the States if they do not introduce one. 

"If ESS does not propose a compensation scheme in their operating report this Autumn, I will propose one by amendment," he said. "ESS are committed to a scheme -they don't need to be convinced. They can see the problems that some people who worked with asbestos are facing."

Exposure to asbestos chrysotile fibers can lead to long-term illnesses including asbestosis, mesothelioma and other diseases of the lung including cancer. The symptoms tend to emerge decades after exposure. 

However, Deputy Fallaize said there had been difficulty finding the resources to get a compensation scheme up and running. 

"The States has a responsibility and it would be very unfair if we ended this States term without having introduced a scheme or be in the process of doing so," he said. 

"We know it can be funded from the Guernsey insurance Fund, it is a matter of a few months of an officer's time to draw up how a scheme would work in Guernsey."

He feels that the States of the day let down people working with asbestos by not bringing in precautions soon enough in the 70s and 80s. 

"It is true to say that the dangers of working with asbestos were recognised years before the States introduced any guidelines or legislation around working with asbestos," he said, "and I think there is some responsibility of the States to make some effort to put that right."

"In the Western World we are going to be one of the outliers who have not introduced a compensation scheme. Jersey are going to introduce theirs imminently and we need to find a way to get on with it quickly."

Currently, people with asbestos-related illnesses are able to apply for certain industrial illness and injury benefits, which are applied on a case-by-case basis.