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Compensation claim for former pottery workers

A group of former ceramic workers whose hearing has been irreversibly damaged have begun a bid for compensation.

The potters' injuries have been estimated at being worth around £10,000 each if they are successful in their claims. Seventeen individuals are pursuing the matter and have already attended a special hearing-loss clinic.

The mandatory medical examination and testing is performed before any similar claim is launched and assesses the extent of damage and provides evidence of the possible causes of impairment.

In this instance if the results of the tests prove that the applicants' hearing has been damaged beyond what would be expected through natural ageing and is likely to have been caused by their working environment the workers will start legal action.

Medical reports from the session will decide the value of claims, dependent on the extent of the individual's hearing loss, whether the ex-potter is suffering from tinnitus and the age of the claimant.

Mark Allen, a specialist in industrial deafness said: "We know that some of the biggest employers in the pottery industry have, over the years, breached noise levels in their factories.

"The legacy of this is a generation of workers who are now suffering noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus, which has greatly affected their quality of life.

"The pottery industry was not alone in failing to protect its employees and workers in other industries often suffer the same problems."

At the peak of its popularity the pottery industry was a large employer in North Staffordshire with around 70,000 workers.

Hundreds of former potters were given hope of compensation last November, when local paper, The Sentinel, published an article following a landmark court ruling which stated that claims could be pursued if workers could prove they had been exposed to more than 80 decibels of noise at work - equivalent to the sound of an alarm clock.

If your hearing has suffered because of your working conditions contact one of our solicitors today.