Next steps in UK group action on coke oven cancers

Hundreds of former steelworkers are believed to have joined a legal case seeking compensation for cancers and lung diseases caused by their jobs. The window to join the multi-million pound legal battle against Tata Steel UK for compensation for respiratory diseases and lung cancers has now closed, after the High Court set a deadline of 23 February 2018 to join an group action.

Lawyers say over 50 workers from the Scunthorpe steelworkers alone have submitted claims. Claimants affected by fumes from the coke ovens in steelworks are being advised by legal experts from the law firms Hugh James, based in Cardiff, and Irwin Mitchell in London. The case is expected to take years to resolve, given the scale of the litigation and amount of evidence to be considered.

At the defendants’ request, and with court approval, claimants with bladder cancer they believe to be caused by coke oven work can also join the group. The separate deadline for those cases is 23 April.

Roger Maddocks, an expert industrial disease lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: “The approval of the group litigation order and the admission by the defendants that until an individual was provided with an appropriate respirator they were in breach of duty, were extremely important milestones and moved the victims and their families a further step closer to securing the justice they deserve concerning the exposure to harmful fumes decades ago at a number of coking plants around the UK.”

He added: “The workers we represent, through no fault of their own, developed serious, and in some cases fatal, respiratory illnesses and lung cancers causing them unnecessary pain and suffering when they should be enjoying their later life with their families. Nothing can turn back the clock but this legal action will hopefully provide them with the help, support and treatments needed to make dealing with their illness more comfortable.”

Insurers for Tata Steel have already admitted it was in breach of its duty owed to its employees from 1947 until appropriate respiratory protection was provided to the workforce. The application for a group litigation order alleging employers failed to protect employees from occupational exposure to dust and fumes was approved by the president of the High Court in January 2017.

All potential claims will be assessed and those whose claims are considered to have merit would then join the group register of claimants to form a single, collective court case.

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