Five years of stalemate and legal documents as thick as an Argos catalogue' - that is what it has taken for former workers at some Bradford factories to get even a chance of receiving compensation for health problems caused by asbestos.

Administrators for Federal-Mogul, the American company which bought the Turner and Newall group in 1998, have announced that its creditors have voted for a scheme which will provide compensation for former T&N workers affected by asbestos.

Responding to the announcement, Helen Tomlin, asbestos litigation solicitor for Thompsons in Leeds, said: "This is the end of a long and difficult road for claimants who have had five years of stalemate and inertia.

"It is the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next."

Some claims are for up to £100,000, but most claimants are not expected to get more than a fifth of their entitlement because the scheme has to provide for claims until 2050.

Raymond White is one of hundreds of Bradford workers employed by T&N.

He received a raft of forms including a massive 569-page legal document, giving the right to vote for the scheme.

Carol Duerden, advice worker for the Bradford Asbestos Victims' Support Group, received more than 100 calls about the forms.

She said: "There was one that was like an Argos catalogue. It frightened people to death. There wasn't a form that said, Do you want to vote yes or no?' The administrators can't do anything simply." In order to vote, former T&N workers had to submit their work and exposure history, legal details and more.

Mr White, who worked at Federal Mogul Bradford Ltd in St John's Works, Neville Road, said: "I didn't vote. I wasn't sure what it was about. I haven't taken a test. I don't want to know. If you've got it, you've got it."

A spokesman for the administrators, Kroll Corporate Advisory and Restructuring Group, said the documents were substantial because of the complexity of the case and legal definitions contained in the information could not easily be paraphrased.

Federal Mogul went into administration in the UK in 2001, leaving victims in Bradford and beyond without access to compensation, but because the company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy it continued to trade in America, where its profits and trading improved substantially.

The Bradford asbestos works covered by the scheme are: l T&N Shelf Twenty Ltd, formerly Wood Bros and Co and Flexitallic Ltd, which had a factories in White Abbey Road, Lower Grafton Road Newton Street/Bottomley Street and Station Lane, Heckmondwike l T&N Shelf One Ltd, Beehive Works. Edderthorpe Street, Leeds Road, formerly The Universal Metal Packing Company Ltd l Federal-Mogul Aftermarket UK Ltd, Greyhound Drive, off Legrams Lane l Federal-Mogul Bradford Ltd, St John's Works, Neville Road, formerly Hepworth and Grandage Ltd, AE Piston Products Ltd and AE Goetze Automotive Ltd e-mail: newsdesk @bradford.newsquest.co.uk