Commentary on Sections Compensation for pneumoconiosis etc. Section 58: “Relevant employer”
274.The conditions of entitlement to a payment in the case of a person suffering from a disease to which the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 applies are set out in section 2(1) of the Act. One of the conditions of entitlement is that all relevant employers have ceased to carry on business. “Relevant employer” is defined in section 2(3) as meaning any person by whom the person suffering from the disease was employed at any time during the period which he was developing the disease and against whom he might have or might have had a claim for damages in respect of the disablement. If there are no relevant employers, a payment is made.
275.Section 58 substitutes a new definition of “relevant employer” which is set out in Schedule 6. A relevant employer is any person by whom the person was employed in a prescribed occupation at any time during the period he was developing the disease and against whom he might have or might have had a claim for damages in respect of the disablement.
276.The following periods of employment would be disregarded for the purposes of determining whether there is a relevant employer:
	those that ended more than 20 years before the date on which the employee’s claim for industrial injuries disablement benefit was determined (or, in the case of a claim from a dependant, where such a date does not exist, from the date of the death of the sufferer), and
	in cases of diffuse mesothelioma only, any employment which began not more than 15 years before that date.
277.A person is not a relevant employer if, disregarding the periods of employment mentioned in the previous paragraph, the period during which he employed the person suffering from the disease:
	did not exceed 12 months, and
	did not exceed 5 years in total and does not represent more than 25% of the total period during which the person was employed in a prescribed occupation (or 7 years and not more than 20% of the total period employed in a prescribed occupation).