New York set to pay $657m to 9/11 workers
A DEAL that would mean payments totalling $657.5 million (437m) for more than 10,000 rescue and recovery workers made ill by dust from the World Trade Centre in New York has gone before a judge.
He has said he favours a settlement, but plans to analyse it carefully to make sure it is fair.
The deal was announced on Thursday night after years of fighting in court. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "I think it's a good settlement for everybody
. This takes care of civilians and uniform service members, it takes care of the private contractors who were brought in."
The settlement – agreed by lawyers representing the city authorities, construction firms and the workers – was announced by WTC Captive Insurance, a special entity established to indemnify the city and its contractors against potential legal action as they moved to clean up the site after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
US federal judge Alvin Hellerstein must approve the deal, along with the workers themselves. For the settlement to be enforced, 95 per cent of the workers would need to agree to be bound by its terms. A settlement would mean the postponement or cancellation of trials tentatively scheduled to begin in May.
Some of the cases scheduled to be heard first included a firefighter who died of throat cancer and another who needed a lung transplant, as well as workers with less serious ailments.
The deal would make the city and other companies represented by the insurer liable for a minimum of $575m, with more money available to the sick if certain conditions are met. Most, if not all, of the money would come out of a $1 billion grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Workers who wish to participate in the settlement would need to prove they had been at the World Trade Centre site or other facilities that handled debris. They also would have to turn over medical records and provide information aimed at weeding out fraudulent or dubious claims.
Thousands of police, firefighters and construction workers who were at the 16-acre site have filed lawsuits against the city, claiming it sent them to Ground Zero without proper protective equipment. Many claim to have fallen ill, with most complaining of a respiratory problem similar to asthma.