A miners union fears some of its members may miss out on compensation because of confusion caused by the strike of 1984.

Its concern centres on miners who were off sick before the strike.

The Nottinghamshire-based Union of Democratic Mineworkers believes they should be compensated on the assumption they would have worked through the strike, had they been well enough.

However, the government does not believe miners should be compensated on this assumption.

Service acknowledged

The union says compensation for sick workers whose mines stayed open in 1984 should be calculated to include the strike period.

General secretary of the UDM, Mick Stevens said: "Some of these miners obviously couldn't work, but would have been at mines that would have been open had they not got this disease."

The government said in a statement that people who worked through the strike would have that service acknowledged.

However, its compensation agreement "does not include any promise to compensate miners for the strike year if they left the job prior to it."

Mr Stevens said the agreement was only in draft form and the UDM would engage a lawyer to fight its case.