Bernie Banton Case Study

Bernie Banton worked as a lathe operator, shaping blocks of asbestos for use in power stations and making asbestos pipe sections in his early career at the Camellia plant of Australian building products giant James Hardie & Co Pty Ltd. When it was revealed of the dangers asbestos caused to humans and the fact that James Hardie new of the dangers compelled Banton to become a campaigner for the right of workers to receive compensation from James Hardie. Bernie was diagnosed with asbestosis in 1999 and later learned in August 2007 that he had contracted a further asbestos-related disease which included asbestosis-related pleural disease and peritoneal mesothelioma. Fellow workers were also affected by the asbestos issue and also fought for their rights in the following chain of events.

And as a result Bernie Banton including other workers sued James Hardie for negligence in 2000. It was estimated that he was one of 12500 claims made against the company for asbestos-related diseases. Many people were affected with the use of asbestos for instance Mr Robert Berengo, who contracted mesothelioma mainly from hugging his father, a painter in the 1960s, settled his case against Amaca for $2million. Banton described the atmosphere of his work place that “I was often covered in a fine white dust. It was on my face, skin, hair and clothes. There was so much dust on my clothes that I used compressed air to get rid of the dust. There was so much dust around, that getting dust in my eyes and nose was just a part of the routine.” (Source) In 1989, these claims were moved to the Dust Diseases Tribunal, which was set up under the DustDiseases Tribunal Act 1989 (NSW). The purpose of this tribunal was to take the pressure off the courts andspeed up the process of hearing the asbestos-related