24/11/07 TUC Risks reported that a retired Port of London Authority (PLA) worker has received £23,500 compensation after being diagnosed with asbestos-related pleural thickening.
Unite secured the compensation for Terence O'Connell, 84, who worked for the PLA from 1937 until 1975, save for the wartime years when he served in the RAF. He started as a boy messenger and by the time of retirement, was manager of the Orsett container base.
While working as a customs clearing clerk in the 1950s and 1960s, he was exposed to asbestos at the South West India Docks when supervising the discharge of asbestos cargo. Mr O'Connell said: 'I suffered from a very dry cough which I could not shake off. My GP referred me to hospital where I had a CT scan. I was told that I had asbestos-related pleural thickening.
' Mr O'Connell's solicitor, Paul Meehan, commented: 'Like the majority of workers at that time, Mr O'Connell was never warned by his employers of the dangers of working with asbestos. At that time, the PLA knew or should have known, that asbestos was a dangerous material and it was legally obliged to protect its workers from exposure to asbestos.'
www.tuc.org.uk/risks
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