Talks on future asbestos compensation are off to a good start, with the chairman of James Hardie, Meredith Hellicar, and the union chief Greg Combet saying progress has been made.
Ms Hellicar and Mr Combet held separate news conferences yesterday after five hours of talks at the Marriott hotel, opposite the company's Sydney office.
"I think both sides are very committed to finding a solution that's right for the victims [of asbestos diseases], and I think we all understand that the need for us to satisfy our shareholders is also essential," Ms Hellicar said.
Mr Combet, the ACTU secretary, said: "One of the areas of commonality is that we want James Hardie to be successful in the future."
The starting point for the unions and asbestos support groups was to ensure that "anyone who has a claim against James Hardie for an asbestos-related disease either now or in the future will have access to compensation", he said.
A representative of asbestos sufferers, Bernie Banton, said his aim was "to ensure that fully funded means fully funded".
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He was referring to the firm's controversial statement to the Stock Exchange and the media in February 2001 quoting the then chief executive, Peter Macdonald, saying a new "fully funded" charitable foundation with starting assets of $293 million provided certainty for asbestos claimants and for James Hardie shareholders.
The company now accepts that the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation is likely to run out of money in 2007, leaving thousands of people owed a total of $2 billion uncompensated.
Company witnesses told the NSW Government's special commission of inquiry into the shortfall that they honestly believed in 2001 that enough money had been set aside to meet all future claims.
But the head of the inquiry, David Jackson, QC, said Mr Macdonald knew that the statement was false. Mr Macdonald stepped aside from the top job this week but will retain a senior operational role. The firm's use of a limited expert report on future claim numbers was "on the most favourable construction, careless in the extreme" and it relied on a "wildly optimistic" financial model, Mr Jackson said.
The talks that started yesterday are aimed at making good the original intention, although Mr Jackson found there had been no legal obligation for the company to put more funds into the foundation in 2001.
Ms Hellicar said yesterday that this finding meant the negotiated solution had to be "one that, despite that [legal] position, we can convince our shareholders is a proper response for the company and ... is affordable and financeable".
The company's key demand is that legal costs be reduced, while the unions are concerned that any system that guarantees this outcome would also reduce payments to claimants.
Mr Banton said he was impressed with the company's "forthrightness and willingness to listen to what we had to say" during his first meeting with Ms Hellicar. "I really see that we have moved forward," he said.
He and other victims of asbestos diseases planned other "private" meetings with Ms Hellicar, which would canvass issues outside the funding talks.
