Construction union UCATT will use next week's Labour Party Conference to step up their campaign against the insurance industries attacks on compensation for workers made ill at work.

The insurance industry have recently launched a number of legal challenges in an attempt to dismantle industrial injury compensation for workers and save themselves billions of pounds in payouts.

UCATT has submitted a Contemporary Issue criticising the insurance industry's attempts to deny compensation to thousands of victims of the incurable lung cancer mesothelioma. The issue is set to be debated during conference.

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In June this year the insurance industry launched a legal challenge in the High Court, where they argued that insurers should no longer be liable to pay compensation to asbestos victims at the time they were exposed. Instead the "trigger" and liability should occur when the disease develops.

In the majority of cases mesothelioma and other conditions relating to exposure to asbestos take over 30 years to develop. By this time many workers will have retired and will no longer be insured. If the insurance industry is successful they will save billions in compensation payments. Asbestos victims and their families will be left destitute.

The High Court case ended on 31 July and a decision is expected later this autumn. However the case is likely to continue for years, as whichever side loses is likely to appeal. It is expected the issue will progress to the House of Lords.

Alan Ritchie, General Secretary of UCATT, said: "The multi-billion pound insurance industry is trying to deny dying workers their rightful compensation. Their actions are sickening. They must be challenged, confronted and stopped."

(CD/JM)