Unions will launch legal action against a bid by James Hardie's asbestos compensation fund to start paying victims in instalments rather than lump sums.
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The ACTU executive has voted for legal action blocking the body's Supreme Court application to pay out sufferers in instalments because of a projected multimillion-dollar funding shortfall.
In September, the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund, bankrolled by James Hardie Industries, announced it was heading for a cash shortfall of $184 million by 2017 after underestimating the number of people dying because of toxic asbestos.
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said the average sufferer of the fatal asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma died 155 days after being diagnosed.
"Asbestos victims do not die by instalments and should not be paid in instalments," Mr Oliver said.
Under a legal agreement, James Hardie puts a set amount of 35 per cent of its operating cashflow into the compensation fund every year to pay out victims.
Rod Smith, whose wife died of mesothelioma in 2011, condemned the application to start paying instalments as "unconscionable" and one that "goes against everything the hard-fought agreement was set up to do".
Mr Smith said that if his wife had not been paid out in full, he would have been unable to stop working to nurse her full time at home until she died.
"I was with her at home, she died at home, and having money allowed us to do that," he said.
"I wish other people with other disease could have this option, but the fact of the matter is that there was only one reason my Julie got diagnosed with cancer, and that's because her father used to come home with James Hardie asbestos dust on his clothes."
Mr Oliver said unions had received legal advice that there was nothing in the compensation fund agreement to stop James Hardie from making a one-off payment to top up the fund.
He said James Hardie was forecast to rake in more than $200 million in profits in 2014-15.
"It's outrageous that its management is seeking to avoid its moral obligation to fully compensate the victims of asbestos-related disease. It cannot shirk that responsibility."
James Hardie did not respond to a request for comment.
The ACTU has also called on the NSW and federal governments to honour their commitments to make a loan facility available to the compensation fund in the event of a remaining shortfall.
