Janice Allen says she feels betrayed by her former employer Marks & Spencer. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
Marks & Spencer has admitted negligently exposing to asbestos a female who worked in two of its stores.
Janice Allen, 53, who was a supervisor in the men’s and women’s garments sections of M&S from 1978-87, initial at its principal Oxford Street retailer in London and then in Uxbridge, has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a lethal type of lung cancer caused by inhaling asbestos fibres. There is no cure, and she has been given months to dwell. M&S has agreed in the large court to pay “significant” damages soon after judgment in her favour in Might. M&S admitted breaching its legal duty of care .
Allen’s attorney, Harminder Bains, of Leigh Day, stated there could be numerous people suffering asbestos-relevant ailments brought on by owners of premises failing to comply with legal safety procedures.
Mesothelioma, cancer of the lung’s outer lining, can get decades to develop and leads to a drawn-out, agonizing death.
Allen, married with two children in their 20s, said she was “devastated and distraught” that she was dying from a cancer she had in no way heard of, from inhaling asbestos that she did not know existed in the retailers.
“I feel betrayed by Marks & Spencer. The firm employed to portray itself like a loved ones they engendered loyalty. I worked very hard, I met my husband there. But to believe beneath the surface they have been exposing folks to deadly dangers, to asbestos, it really is so cynical. We have been searching forward to enjoying life in the coming many years alternatively I have to face the truth I will not dwell to see my grandchildren.”
Asbestos was regarded as a miracle fire-proof developing materials and widely utilized in construction right after the second globe war right up until the 1970s, when it was recognised to be lethal. Successive legislation has considering that essential the elimination of asbestos.
In 2013 Steve Rowe, an M&S executive director, advised a BBC documentary: “If you seem back into the 60s, 70s and 80s, it is feasible that workers have been exposed to asbestos in our shops.” But M&S’s policies relating to asbestos had grow to be “market foremost” because then.
In 2011, M&S was fined £1m, for unsafe managing of asbestos at its Studying keep. The judge Harvey Clarke QC said managers had been cavalier in not closing the retailer even though the perform was ongoing, “to maintain the trading profit as large as reasonably attainable”.
Allen worked in the Marble Arch shop and then at Uxbridge for a complete of 9 many years following leaving school at 18. In the summer time of 2012, 25 many years soon after leaving Marks and Spencer, she felt agonising discomfort close to her ribs, and in April 2013 she was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Given M&S’s background, her attorney Bains believed it was most likely that Allen had been exposed to asbestos while operating there.
William Wallace, a well being and safety officer who worked at the Reading retailer in 2006, informed the HSE of the criminally unsafe perform there and grew to become a witness in the Studying prosecution, had worked at the Marble Arch store in 1998 and acted as a witness in Allen’s legal declare.
Wallace offered inside information of massive quantities of asbestos in the Marble Arch keep, in fire doors, pillars, ceiling voids and insulation board. He mentioned the air-conditioning was most likely to have circulated asbestos dust, and workers and the public could have been exposed in other methods unless stringent measures had been followed.
Steve Rotheram, a Labour member of the all-party parliamentary group on asbestos, said: “Right now I am creating to the chief executive of the HSE [Health and Safety Executive] to create quick clarification on the procedures deployed by Marks & Spencer in relation to asbestos. I want assurances that the public can be confident that they were not put in any danger while purchasing in these merchants.”
M&S declined to comment on its breach of duty to Allen, but stressed it took spot in the 1970s and 80s.
In a statement the business explained: “We are confident that we now have the most rigorous policy we can have in spot and that M&S stores are safe for our staff and our clients.”
Marks & Spencer admits exposing worker to asbestos
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder