Some of you may already be familiar with the fact that safety is just one element of our services here. I have been involved in the ‘health’ side of safety for over 20 years and have been what we like to call an ‘occupational hygienist’ for all of my career. The noise part of links links closely to occupational deafness.
In truth, there’s not a lot of us about, you can consider us the most nerdy of the nerds if you like (I couldn’t comment) but there really is a place for us health specialists amongst all of the other consultants out there.
One of the services we offer linked to this health side of things is noise assessment and its come to our attention today that deafness claims seem to be the new golden goose for the no win no fee lawyers.
There is good reason for this with the average settlement fee for a deafness claim being around £10,500 rather than the much more modest £500 of a whiplash injury. For this reason insurance companies have seen claims levels soar in recent years with Royal & Sun Alliance reporting 800 claims every month and Aviva seeing its deafness claims rocket from 2,400 in 2009 to a staggering 11,467 in 2013!
So, what are you doing about protecting your business from occupational deafness claims?
Whilst its true that you have insurance cover to protect you it won’t be long before you see a potentially large increase in premium if some of these claims come your way. However, the steps which you need to take to protect your business (and keep you in good shape with your insurer and insurance broker).
Next steps
- Find out if you have a problem – use the two metre rule to see if you need to raise your voice to speak to a colleague. If you do you might have a noise problem;
- Speak to an expert – we’re here to help and if you want to chat then we don’t bite! (we won’t even charge you if you want to pass something across us for comment);
- Get a noise survey done by a competent person (that’s us) if needed;
- Put in place audiometry to see if anyone in your workplace suffers hearing damage (we offer this too) and test new workers to protect yourself from future claims.
If you have questions then ask us, we’re here (hear) to help! Check out our video below for more good advice
If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100
