A former employee of bathroom appliance manufacturer Armitage Shanks has been awarded £160,000 in compensation for working with asbestos in a factory.
76-year-old Eli Richards for Great Wyrley, near Walsall, worked for the Armitage Shanks factory in Bushbury, Wolverhampton as a tool maker from 1979 until his retirement. Eli had been a very fit man throughout his younger years – playing table tennis, five-a-side football into his sixties and swimming regularly until recently.
Part of his responsibilities at Armitage Shanks included cutting boards of asbestos but, throughout his seventeen year employment with the company, Eli was never given any advice about the harmful effects of asbestos or provided with any personal protective equipment to prevent him from breathing in the harmful fibres.
Eli, who had never smoked in his life, was recently diagnosed with mesothelioma – a fatal lung cancer which is caused by exposure to asbestos – and, after seeking legal advice, made a claim for compensation for working with asbestos in a factory against his former employers.
After being presented with the case, Armitage Shanks admitted their liability for Eli´s condition and negotiated a settlement of compensation for working with asbestos in a factory amounting to £160,000.