The International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) is taking urgent action in support of its affiliate, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), in its fight to stop the James Hardie asbestos corporation depriving its former workers of compensation for asbestos-related illness and deaths.
The AMWU says the company, which was for half a century the major producer of asbestos and asbestos products in Australia and also an exporter of the mineral, was aware of the deadly health effects of this substance for decades, yet covered this up and did nothing to protect workers and the public.
After being subject to a wide range of claims for workers' compensation from its employees who contracted asbestos-related diseases, including many members of the AMWU, as well as claims from builders and others who also became ill from using the company's products, James Hardie restructured and established a medical compensation foundation in 2001, declaring it had sufficient funds to meet future claims.
When the AMWU said there would clearly not be enough money in this fund, the company moved its head office from Australia to the Netherlands to ensure its assets and large profit and revenue stream from operations in the US would be out of reach.
Following a campaign by the union and asbestos victims, a judicial inquiry into the circumstances of the restructure was set up by the premier of NSW, which has now uncovered clear evidence of fraud and the company's deliberate attempt to disguise the level of its liabilities.
The IMF has requested its affiliate in the Netherlands, the FNV-Bondgenoten, make a representation to the Dutch government, urging it to act to stop the Netherlands becoming a haven for corporate crooks seeking to avoid their obligations to injured workers. The government should seek to establish a civil liabilities treaty with Australia to enable enforcement of any Australian legal judgment against James Hardie. Australia already has such treaties with Britain and other European countries.
The IMF has also contacted US affiliates to support the AMWU's request for protest action in the US — where James Hardie makes most of its money — and a demand that the state of Delaware, where the company is also registered, negotiate an agreement with the government of NSW, to assist the process of being able to sue James Hardie in the US to meet the company's obligations to injured workers.
Speaking for the IMF, its general secretary Marcello Malentacchi said it was "a real scandal and shocking that James Hardie puts such greed for profits above the health and lives of its workers. Victims should be able to sue the corporation and prevent it from avoiding its legal and moral responsibility."
Some 40,000 asbestos-related claims are expected in Australia over the next 20 years.
Since January 1, 2004, all production and export of asbestos has been banned in, from and to Australia.
[Reprinted from .]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, July 28, 2004.
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