The Avenues of Compensation of Sufferers of Asbestos-Derived Illnesses. Choice of Mechanisms, Implication in Victims’ Organisations, and Stability of Employment Paths

Héloïse Pillayre will present a paper on Asbestosis compensation in France.

Abstract :  Asbestos is a toxic material that has been widely used in the industry and has provoked thousands of deaths, even though producers were aware of the toxicity of the product. In France, the asbestos’scandal, which started in the 90’s, interrogated the legitimacy of the traditional system of compensation for work-related illnesses : with the mediatization of the scandal, the traditional lump sum compensation appeared unfair.  My aim is to analyze the changes provoked by the asbestos’scandal among different categories of actors. Here focusing on the victims, I will show how they make a choice between different avenues of compensation, what they expect from a compensation fund, from a civil trial. From a theoretical point of view, this study aims at interrogating the linearity of the Felstiner, Abel and Sarat’s model (« naming », « blaming », « claiming »), showing that these operations can take many different shapes and be realized in very different orders.

WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, RIchard Ward Building

All are welcome.