The Government has insisted with the European Court of Human Rights that it took all necessary measures, including changing legislation, to address the problem of carcinogenic asbestos in the dockyard.
The Malta Drydocks management provided employees with masks and made sure adequate ventilation was in place.
Exposed workers were given a compensation allowance, paid by the ship owners, the Government said in its legal submissions in a case taken to Europe by 20 ex-workers and the family of one who died from asbestos-related cancer.
They claim the Maltese Government, which owned Malta Shipyards from 1968 to 2003, failed to fulfil its “positive obligations” to protect their lives against the cancer-causing fibre and tell them they were exposed to danger.
The men resorted to the ECHR after three Maltese judges in the Constitutional Court upheld previous judgments that said their request for damages should have been filed in a civil court, not a constitutional one.
Led by lawyer Juliette Galea, they said they were “heavily exposed” during their years at Malta Shipyards and now suffered respiratory problems and areas of calcification on the lungs, known as plaques. One died from...
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