Pressure on to speed up cancer compo
July 13, 2007
Yesterday, it emerged that Angela Eckersley, a former ABC employee and the wife of former ABC presenter and journalist Ian
Eckersley, was suffering from breast cancer the 15th ABC Brisbane staffer to fall victim to the disease.
Ms Eckersley left the broadcaster two years ago after a seven-year stint on the production desk at the ABC’s Toowong studios
in Brisbane’s inner west.
The ABC confirmed three men who worked at the now abandoned Toowong studios from the late 1980s and early 1990s had cancer.
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) state secretary David Waters, who convened a stop work meeting today to demand a speedier resolution of compensation for the breast cancer cluster victims, said men were also seeking support.
There is universal concern about the risk of cancer, he said.
While the focus has been very much on the devastation caused by the breast cancer, the male employees also are concerned
about any risk and as such are seeking access to free testing.
The meeting passed a motion calling on ABC managing director Mark Scott to expedite the compensation process now in the hands of the federal workers’ compensation body, Comcare.
Mr Waters did not know how many, if any, of the women diagnosed had received compensation.
A study conducted in 2006, indicated the rate of cancer affecting the Toowong studio employees was up to 11 times higher than the rate found in the general working community.
But an investigation by a panel of experts headed by Professor Bruce Armstrong could not pinpoint a cause.
Prof Armstrong has said he would not recommend further testing.
Former newsreader Lisa Backhouse, 38, another victim of the illness, today said that Ms Eckersley’s bad news was incredibly
frightening for other ABC staff.
I spoke to one staff member who said to me today they feel like sitting ducks, she said.
It’s a time bomb waiting to go off for many of those staff members, and the distress and anxiety there is palpable.
Ms Eckersley’s husband Ian said his wife was in hospital undergoing surgery, but he hoped she would return home in the next few days.
It has been an enormously challenging time, but she is an amazingly courageous and strong woman, Mr Eckersley said.
But the prognosis is excellent and that’s going to give us a very bright and happy future.
ABC management last month announced a national investigation into the incidence of breast cancer in all its Australian studios, but the MEAA wants testing to extend to the seven Brisbane sites where the ABC now operates.
The union has asked Mr Scott, who is overseas, for a commitment by July 18 to complete the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) and ionizing radiation testing that was begun at Toowong but interrupted when the riverside buildings were abandoned just before Christmas last year.
ABC employees in the newsroom are unanimously calling for the testing to be completed, Mr Waters said.
The meeting also resolved to establish and maintain a register of past and present employees to monitor their health and
safety.