Document yr54x3VkngE6ggY45XNexjvD

FILE NAME: Newspaper & Magazine Articles (NMA) DATE: 1932 Sept 6 DOC#: NMA025 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article - Mockery of "Compensation" For Asbestos Worker / 2 MOCKERY OF " COMPENSATION" FOR ASBESTOS WORKER D r u t C o m r a d e ,*--About 18 mo n t h s ago alarming nows camp to the fars of T u r n e r nnd New-all'* operatives about the asbestos industn . i - The Homo Office had made an extensive inquiry into the trade and had found it in jurious to health, in fart dangerous fo Mich * degree that in pome instances it poisoned the lungs, musing that deadly penurge, culosis. its wa.s the scheme of thn Homo Office. Anybody employed in tho affected areas of the paid mill must be examined by lung expert, and if found suffering n u rt at once be compelled the leave thn firm. Compensation under the Workmen's Com pensation Act would ho granted, the maxi mum bum being 80s, per week. This com pensation lo be based on 12 months' previous C!vice. Non 'burner and Tsewnllg have been for a considerable period on short-time, so that the workers who were unfortunnlelv i rlnsM-d as unfit, but were still to be em ployed it tile industry, were treated in a , voiy unfair manner. Some of them md onlv been working three days n fortnight, others tluce day a week. Hen* arc facts of the compensation scheme paid to old workers: -- One man with 20 years' service got Las. a v m*|<)an0d y1e0arysea1r8ss. 1n0.s.waeekw,eeIkd. years 22s. a One woman who had worked for 00 years ruis classed as fit only for light- duties. She wi\s found work in another depart ment. but her wage was dropped bv 0s. per wtrl,, U a unker loses a limb ho gets compensn tiou, but if ho getB asbestos on the lung?, he i'' vcualiM'd, 'l In. woman with 38 yearC service is at the moment ill in bod with neurasthenia, brought about by worry and thinking she has , done nnntht r worker out of a job. Women have also been compelled to leave the firm ; one receives 10a. a week. They arc not allowed to receive Nationa\ Health or draw from thn Labour Exehango; one worker has been compelled to go to tho V. A. ( for relief. Not long ago one of the principal owners of Turner's asbestos died and left 40,000 to form n nucleus of n pension fund. Now. when the directors wero naked about this tnonev, they say that it cannot bo used fur compensation. ~ Yours fraternally, " A SuvcruKn." Rochdale.