No-Fault Compensation for Exposure to Chromium-6 in the Netherlands. The Role of Perceived Justice on Trust and Pursuing Court Procedures

This article discusses the result of a survey study (N = 135) with chromium-6 victims. We examined applicants’ perceptions of procedural and outcome fairness and justice related to the no-fault compensation scheme that was founded to compensate them for their damages. We measured not only procedural and outcome fairness but also trust in their (former) employer and their intentions to initiate a court procedure. First of all, contrary to what we expected from a no-fault compensation scheme, our study shows that on average our applicants did not perceive the procedure and the outcome of the scheme as fair and just. Moreover, our study shows a relationship between applicants’ perceptions of procedural justice and their feelings of trust in Defence, their (former) employer. We also found that applicants’ outcome concerns were related to their trust feelings. Our study also showed that, on average, the less people viewed their procedure as fair and just, the more willing they were to initiate court procedures. In contrast to our expectations, we did not find a relation between perceived outcome justice and pursuing court procedures. Also, we found that the more people trusted their former employer, the less they were willing to initiate court procedures.