First Claims Rejected in Grindsted Employee Safety Case

To be recognized, claims have to be related to mercury and have to have occurred as a consequence of claimant’s employment at Grindstedværket during the period in which Grindstedværket engaged in vitamin production.

20/04/09 The first decisions have been made in the mercury case. The Danish National Board of Industrial Injuries has rejected a number of claims that employees at the former Grindstedværket have become ill as a direct consequence of working with mercury in the plant’s vitamin production facilities in the 1960s and 1970s.

’We expect the National Board of Industrial Injuries to have processed all the current claims by the end of the year, which we consider positive. In the past months, we have assisted with measurements and other data related to the working and employment conditions at the plant in the 1960s and 1970s, and we now look forward to finalising the claims in a proper manner,’ says Martin Kirstein Madsen, Plant Manager, Danisco, Grindsted.

Even though Danisco is not under a legal obligation to offer any form of compensation, Chairman of the Board of Directors Anders Knutsen explained at last year’s annual general meeting that Danisco is prepared to live up to its social and ethical responsibility.

Once all the claims have been finally completed, Danisco will announce its plan offering some additional compensation for claims where medical experts and the National Board of Industrial Injuries have recognised work-related injuries resulting in a loss.

To be recognised, claims have to be related to mercury and have to have occurred as a consequence of claimant’s employment at Grindstedværket during the period in which Grindstedværket engaged in vitamin production.

Danisco has been informed that around 143 claims have been filed with the National Board of Industrial Injuries.