NZ victims put pressure on for James Hardie payouts

Pressure is mounting on James Hardie to offer New Zealand asbestos victims compensation, as they have done in Australia.

Last year, the Australian company agreed to payouts averaging A$250,000 ($272,000) to former workers suffering from asbestos-related lung diseases, such as mesothelioma and asbestosis.

But it has made no offer to New Zealanders who worked at its South Auckland asbestos factory from 1939 to 1984, and the only compensation available to dying former employees is a Government "independence allowance" of $68.77 a week.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little said he knew of no one who had successfully claimed that allowance from the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

"In most cases they are getting nothing," he said.

The union is stepping up its efforts to persuade James Hardie to make payouts or to get the New Zealand Government to increase its assistance.

"Hopefully, in terms of taking on Hardie's, we would like to get the Government involved, through the likes of ACC, to apply whatever pressure we can to get some sort of outcome for these people," Mr Little said.

He would discuss the Australian situation with Australian Council of Trade Unions delegates when he was in Melbourne next month. Part of the problem for asbestos sufferers in New Zealand is that people with gradual-onset diseases are not eligible for lump-sum payments to help with either medical or funeral costs unless they contracted their illness after 2002.

The Government is keen to avoid mass retrospective lump-sum payouts.

ACC is currently appealing a District Court decision ordering it to pay $98,500 to Dawn Lehmann, whose husband, Ross, died of asbestos-related lung disease in 2003, aged 79.

ACC Minister Ruth Dyson said she could not comment on that case while it was before the courts, but she would keep an open mind on any approach to James Hardie.

"I have had no formal approach for any engagement with James Hardie but will be happy to receive and consider any correspondence."

Company spokesman James Rickards said it did not have to offer any compensation to New Zealanders because they were covered by ACC.

"It's really up to the Government. Our understanding is that it is there to provide appropriate levels of compensation," he told The Australian newspaper.

New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said yesterday that his Government was negotiating with James Hardie to secure compensation for asbestos victims in Australia but it could not extend its influence to help overseas victims.

"We can't solve, constitutionally or legally, the problems of people in other countries because they've got different compensation and legal systems from our own."

Mr Carr advised overseas victims to look to their respective Governments and trade unions to put pressure on James Hardie.

"The sort of moral pressure that brought James Hardie to the negotiating table would, I think, be effective in bringing them to the negotiating table in Indonesia or New Zealand," he said.

Lawyers on both sides of the Tasman are currently working on a series of test cases, in an effort to circumvent current New Zealand law in order to seek damages from James Hardie.

Sydney barrister Graeme Little said he was working on several test cases.

"In New Zealand, they have a no-fault scheme, which means that you can get compo but you can't sue for damages," he said.

"That limits your right to sue for damages in a court in New Zealand. It doesn't say anything about suing in a court overseas."

Mr Little said the cases needed to prove that the wrong occurred with James Hardie in Australia - and not when the victims inhaled asbestos fibres in New Zealand.

Asbestos-related lung cancers currently kill about 50 New Zealanders each year.

- NZPA