Asbestos victims can’t believe what they’ve been through in recent years. It took them more than a decade of fighting alongside unions to have a public compensation fund approved for people affected by this toxic and carcinogenic material, like those that exist in France or Belgium. They achieved this in 2022, with a law which obtained parliamentary unanimity. But from this “summit” they moved to deep “disappointment” and “general anger” against the government, which, almost two years later, did not approve the regulations that regulate and launch the fund. “It’s unbelievable, it doesn’t have a name,” said Jon García, spokesperson for the National Federation of Victims.
Those affected and the majority unions (CCOO and UGT) launched a new statement of complaint last week, when the Congress of Deputies once again asked the government and, in particular, Minister Elma Saiz, that Social Security now approves the regulation. This is the key to defining how the fund works, the amounts of compensation, who is entitled to it and how to request it.
After several missed deadlines, the ministry no longer even offers a date or a clear horizon for the measure to be ready so that victims can begin to seek compensation. “We must keep in mind that we are facing a new regulation, a regulation that no other public administration has applied for different reasons”, responds to elDiario.es from Social Security, as highlighted by Minister Saiz to a question from the PNV in the Senate in early September.
Regardless, the minister highlighted the approval of the general state budgets as a “step” for “adequate budgetary allocation to face compensation.” For these compensations, there is currently a budgeted item of 25 million euros, agreed with EH Bildu starting from the 2022 accounts. “25 million is a lower figure, but you have to start somewhere,” says Ana García de la Torre, secretary. of Occupational Health of the UGT.
20 months late: “They are breaking the law”
Victims and unions remember that the law that approved the fund provided a margin of three months to approve the regulations, a deadline agreed by the government itself during the parliamentary process. It ended in January 2023, 20 months ago. Almost two years.
“They tell us that the laws are there to be respected, but the government does not do it. “Everyone puts their hands on their heads,” laments Jon García, who worked at CAF Euskadi and is on the list of workers affected by asbestos exposure. Among his colleagues, there have already been five deaths.
Once the legal deadline passed, the minister at the time, José Luis Escriva, even set June 2023 as the approval date, but that did not happen either. When Social Security shared its plans with unions and victims that summer, the organizations did not like the project, which deemed the compensation amounts “unacceptable”. It is for this reason that they presented several allegations in July 2023 “and until today”, deplores Jon García: “We do not know anything else and they have not answered us either.
Asked about the causes of this great delay, sources from the Ministry of Social Security do not detail the reasons, but indicate that “work is underway to have agile, stable and effective regulations for the people concerned”.
Although during this period there were elections and the formation of a new government, the victims and the majority unions consider the delay “unjustifiable”. “It’s not explained, no matter how you look at it,” considers Óscar Bayona, of CCOO Occupational Health. “There is no reason for such a huge delay,” recognizes Ana García de la Torre (UGT).
The two unions demand that Social Security present the regulations “as quickly as possible” and respond to their requests. In particular, the increase in the amounts and the exemption from personal income tax, as is the case for other compensation recognized by the State, such as that for terrorism or HIV.
Victims’ feeling of “abandonment”
“People are desperate, after the wave of October 2022, we found ourselves on a journey in the desert,” condemns the spokesperson for the National Federation of Associations of Asbestos Victims (Fedavica). Many affected workers and their families do not have a company from which to claim damages, because they do not exist or because they have declared insolvency. For them, public funds are the only way to obtain “justice” and some reparation.
This is the case of Mª Carmen Mendizábal, whose husband died three years ago of mesothelioma due to the asbestos to which he was exposed at work. The company that employed him no longer exists. “We have been fighting for three years, but we see no way out,” says the widow, mother of a 27-year-old daughter.
Last year, Social Security expected that 89 people who had died since the law came into force would be eligible for compensation, which would represent a total of 5.41 million euros, plus around 17, 55 million euros per year in compensation for new diagnoses (around 500 euros per year). year).
Minister Elma Saiz reiterated that once the law is approved, the right to compensation is recognized, even if they cannot yet exercise it. “The publication of the regulation does not delay the right granted by law,” they reiterate to the Ministry of Social Security. The message “hurt a lot” among the victims, recognizes Óscar Bayona (CCOO), who recalls that they have been waiting for two years for the fund to be regulated and do not know when they will be able to request compensation or for how long. Social Security will have to evaluate their cases or not.
Mª Carmen Mendizábal is a pessimist. “Personally, I have no hope that this will be resolved quickly, it’s all just a joke, they’re passing us by like hell. We feel abandoned,” laments the widow.
