Shipping firm to pay compensation
Published on 13 September 2013
Some £150m in compensation is expected to be paid to former Harland and Wolff workers who contracted asbestos-related diseases while working at the shipyard.
More than 2,000 people have been already been paid compensation. Asbestos was a widely-used insulation material in shipbuilding until the 1970s.
Many workers contracted asbestos-related diseases after they were exposed to its fibres. The legacy of the once government-owned Belfast shipyard is still causing misery for thousands of former workers. To date more than 2,000 former workers, relatives and contractors who worked in the yard before it was privatised in 1989 have successfully claimed for compensation at a cost of £60m. That is an average of £30,000 each.
Billy Graham from east Belfast, who worked in ship repair in the yard for 20 years, is one of the former workers who was awarded compensation. He said: "We were told nothing about asbestosis. When you were working with old boilers, there was an asbestos ring around them, and we just pulled them off and the dust was flying everywhere.
"It's a big shock when you are told you have a mild form of asbestosis. It does not get any better. It affects you that you can't walk. You can't do certain things. You can't play with the grandkids the way you used to. You are just beat."
The former employees are suffering from a range of diseases including asbestosis, mesothelioma, pleural plaques and lung cancer.
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