More than 300 former coke-oven workers suffering from respiratory illnesses are taking legal action against British Coal and British Steel for exposure to harmful dust and fumes decades ago.
Ex-workers and families of operatives at the Phurnacite plant in Abercwmboi, south Wales launched legal action in October 2011, claiming that working at the plant caused them to suffer various respiratory illnesses, including lung cancers, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The majority of workers were employed in a range of occupations at the coke works between the 1940s and 1980s.
A High Court judgement last year ruled that the National Coal Board operating the Phurnacite plant had not taken all practicable measures to protect employees from the inhalation of dust and fumes at the site. British Coal had only introduced suitable respiratory protection in the early 1980s.
The Court found strong evidence of a causal link between processes at the plant and certain types of disease, but insufficient evidence of a causal link for bladder cancer and specific types of skin cancers.
The Court’s ruling paved the way for legal action in other regions, including Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Humberside, the North East and Corby in Northampton, where coking and steel plants were particularly prominent.
Last week (26 July), law firms Irwin Mitchell and Hugh James confirmed they had jointly issued letters of claim against British Coal and British Steel, on behalf of former workers who became ill after employment at coking plants and steel works around England and Wales.
The letters outline allegations that both companies:
€ﾢ failed to assess correctly the risks of working on coke ovens; and
€ﾢ failed to adequately protect workers from the significant dust and fumes generated.
With the aim of ensuring that all the claimants get access to justice, the letters also request the defendants to agree to a limitation amnesty — a measure that would remove strict time deadlines for bringing a usual workplace illness claim.
Irwin Mitchell said liabilities for British Coal and British Steel are held by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Tata Steel, respectively.
Roger Maddocks, a specialist workplace-illness lawyer at Irwin Mitchell’s Newcastle office, said: “Employees have a basic right to be able to go to work and return home safely at the end of the day. Sadly, in these cases, the workers have been affected by very serious and, in some cases, terminal illnesses just because of the air they breathed at work.”
Kathryn Singh, of Hugh James solicitors, added: “This is yet another instance where workers are left paying the price of their employers not protecting their health and safety decades ago.”
In August last year, former coke-oven workers with lung cancer became entitled to industrial injuries disablement benefit, subject to meeting certain employment-related criteria.
This followed a paper issued by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, which found that the risk of contracting lung cancer doubled for those employees who worked on the coke ovens for 15 years or more. For those who worked on the oven top, the risk of contracting lung cancer doubled after five years of employment.
Hi my husband worked in the coke industry in cwm in bed day for several years back in the 90’s three years ago he was diagnosed with cancer it’s now in his lungs and every where , does anyone know if we could claim at all please ?