France: the prejudice of anxiety recognized for more than 700 Lorraine coal miners
The miners of the Houillères du Bassin de Lorraine (HBL), November 8, 1999 in Freyming-Merlebach, while they occupy the premises of the management.
AFP - FRANCK FIFE
Text by: RFI Follow
6 min
At the end of a legal fight that began more than 7 years ago, 727 Lorraine coal miners saw the courts recognize their prejudice on Friday.
A first, since this damage, which allows compensation for people who are not sick but who are worried about being able to become sick at any time because of the substances to which their activities expose them, was previously reserved for asbestos workers before be extended in 2019 to all toxics.
The Douai Court of Appeal, in northern France, awarded each of the minors 10,000 euros in compensation.
Publicity
Read more
A concept long reserved for asbestos workers, the prejudice of anxiety allows the compensation of people who are not sick but who worry about being able to become sick at any time.
In these judgments, the court noted the exposure of minors to a series of harmful substances - wood dust, coal and rock dust, asbestos particles, diesel locomotive fumes, fumes from toxic products and liquids - generating "
a high risk of developing serious pathology
”.
The court considered that the State Judicial Agent (AJE), intervening following the liquidation of Charbonnages de France, does not justify that “
all the necessary measures were taken to ensure safety and protect health of workers
”.
For Lorraine miners, anxiety is aggravated by the fact that many still live in mining towns, in contact with each other, and see their neighbors fall ill, struck by kidney or skin cancer, leukemia, etc. silicosis or other respiratory diseases, point out their lawyers.
The miners of the CFDT union, who had brought this legal fight in 2013 before the Forbach industrial tribunal welcomed “
this happy outcome
”.
Their lawyer, Me Jean-Paul Teissonnière, welcomes a strong decision, which could set a precedent for other workers.
In the law of the prevention of industrial accidents and occupational diseases, the prejudice of anxiety is a modern and new tool which allows a decisive advance [...] By involving the judge as soon as the fault has been committed without waiting for diseases appear, there we really intervene on the real.
Me Jean-Paul Teissonnière, lawyer for minors from Lorraine
The judicial marathon of the former
“black mouths”
of Lorraine, where the last mine closed in 2004, began in 2016 before the industrial tribunal.
Faced with the weakness of the compensation allocated, he continued on appeal where they had been dismissed in 2017 of all their claims.
But two years later, the Court of Cassation quashed this judgment and, above all, widened to exposure to any toxic substance the perimeter of this damage previously reserved for asbestos workers.
Me Jean-Paul Teissonnière regrets that for about fifty complainants, this decision comes too late.
At the start of the procedure none of the 700 miners were ill.
These diseases appeared afterwards.
And more than a third of those who started the procedures 7 years ago are now affected by occupational diseases, and a few dozen have already died.
Me Jean-Paul Teissonnière, lawyer for minors from Lorraine
(With
AFP
)
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Justice
France
Employment and Work