Astounding Words

In a recent case, a worker has received compensation from three employers for loss of hearing due to exposure to dangerous levels of noise at workplace.

The employee, John Walton, suffered occupation deafness after working with three employers, namely, Corus (formally called British Steel Corporation), Darchem Projects Limited and Turbros Engineering for around 30 years.

Walton was employed as a welder by all three employers and had to work in noisy environments. He was diagnosed with hearing loss two years ago. He had had hearing trouble earlier as well, but the extent of the problem was known only after a medical check up was done in 2007.

After the check up, Walton consulted his union, the GMB, which asked its lawyers Thompsons Solicitors to file a compensation claim in court. However, all three employers admitted their liability for Walton’s hearing loss and reached an out of court settlement with a combined payment of 12,750 pounds as damages.

According to Linda Redhead from Thompsons Solicitors, a number of employees suffering from loss of hearing are not aware that it might have been caused by work. She added that employees who have been made to work in high levels of noise have the complete right to claim compensation if they suffer from hearing loss.

Billy Coates from the GMB seconded Redhead by saying that a number of employees who are subjected to extreme noise at the workplace suffer from loss of hearing in the long run. He added that though the problem goes unnoticed for a long time in many cases, employers should compensate all those who have suffered due to their negligence.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 5:26 am and is filed under Business Performance, Health + More, Lawyers' World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.