Government ‘insensitive’ to the dangers of asbestos

Twenty former dockyard workers demanding compensation for asbestos-related illnesses yesterday rejected the Government’s plea that it had done everything possible to ensure their safety and argued that the masks they were given were flimsy and inadequate. “The protective clothing was nothing more than a sham protective measure – the masks provided were not capable of protecting the men at all, particularly against asbestos,” they pleaded in submissions to the European Court of Human Rights. Similarly, the ventilation in the work areas was “manifes-tly insufficient”. Through their lawyer Juliette Galea, the men and the family of a worker who died from asbestosis argued that the Government, which owned Malta Shipyards from 1968 to 2003, had failed to fulfil its “positive obligations” to protect their lives against the cancer-causing fibre and tell them they were exposed to danger. The safety equipment was so flimsy, often nothing more than disposable gear, that it led the workers “to seriously doubt the authorities’ good faith”. The men resorted to the European court after three judges in the Maltese Constitutional Court upheld previous rulings that their request for damages should...