'Asbestosis known since 1943': compensation to family members of asbestos worker victims
From 1961 to 1996 a water worker had also repaired water pipes with asbestos pipes. For the Court of Appeal only from 91/92 the asbestos risk was a known fact
3' min read
3' min read
Asbestosis has been listed among the deadly diseases since 1943, the judge cannot therefore deny compensation for the death of the worker by claiming lack of awareness of the risks on the part of the employer. The Cassazione thus upheld the appeal of the wife and three children of a aqua worker, who had worked for 35 years, from 1961 to 1996, with eternit pipes, exposed to the carcinogenic fibres of asbestos without protection. In 2012 he died of lung cancer, after being diagnosed with asbestosis at 10%, then 85% and finally 100%.
The Inail, as well as the expert witness, had recognised the occupational nature of the illness. Conclusions endorsed by the labour judge, who had condemned the Land Reclamation Consortium for which the worker worked to compensate family members with approximately 900,000 euros.
A verdict that was completely overturned on appeal. The territorial court, in fact, had excluded the right to compensation despite having ascertained, on the basis of the expert's report, 'that the worker had been placed with high frequency in contact with tanks and pipes made of asbestos cement on which he carried out maintenance and repair work; that no adequate prevention measures had been adopted as part of the worker's health surveillance'. Not even the recognition by INAIL of asbestosis - which degenerated over time into carcinoma with metastases - as a disease of occupational origin had helped.
The time elapsed since the end of the job
.For the second instance judges, a claim brought by the heirs more than 20 years after the end of the employment relationship made it difficult for the employer to prove compliance with prevention and safety obligations. Playing against a yes to compensation was, once again, time: the work had begun in 1961 and ended in 1996. It was not possible, therefore, to apply retroactively the asbestos protection legislation that came into force with Legislative Decrees 626/94, 81/2008, and 106/2009. Nor could the previous regulation of Presidential Decree 303/1956, which referred only to dust in general, be valorised. According to the Court of Appeal, it was only from 1991/92 onwards that the causal correlation between exposure to asbestos fibres and lung cancer could be considered a known fact.
Finally, the Ctu had based his conclusions on the occupational origin of the diseases, also recognised by INAIL, without identifying the quantitative parameters of the exposure, 'indispensable in order to assess the cumulative dose of asbestos fibres expressed as fibres per year per cubic centimetre of air'. Thus, the assessment was unreliable. The Supreme Court, however, clearly distanced itself from the arguments of the Court of Appeal, to which it referred the case in order for it to review an assessment that was at times even contrary to the law.
