The UK's largest private sector union, Amicus, will today slam insurers whom it accuses of avoiding pay-outs on up to 75% of asbestos claims in the High Court.
The union said by challenging the claims of workers who have pleural plaques because of asbestos exposure, insurers were “shirking their responsibility.”
It said “unscrupulous ambulance chasers” were giving insurers a reason to attack a “legitimate class of legal action”.
The union said: “Insurers are claiming that an increase in pleural plaques cases is evidence of the so-called compensation culture and that scan vans are fuelling the increase.
“But the real cause of the increase is the widespread and indiscriminate use of asbestos in many industries until the early 1980s, and a failure by employers to protect workers.”
