Employer pays compensation to widow of asbestos victim

An employer has agreed to pay out £200,000 to a woman who lost her husband to the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma.

James Rattray worked for the South Central Strategic Health Authority as a joiner and carpenter for nearly 30 years before being diagnosed with the condition in 2004.

He died the following year at the age of 64, the Basingstoke Gazette reports.

In January 2008, the health authority admitted he had been negligently exposed to asbestos - which is indentified by the Health and Safety Executive as the greatest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK - and agreed to a settlement with his widow Jenny.

A spokesperson for the organisation said: "The health authority is pleased that agreement has been reached with the family of Mr Rattray in relation to a claim while he was working at Park Prewett Hospital in Basingstoke."

27/08/2008 16:42