Potters can claim for lost hearing at work

LEGAL firm WE Solicitors has successfully settled out of court on behalf of 15 former employees whose hearing has been affected while working for some of Stoke-on-Trent's biggest pottery names.

Solicitor Adam Bennett said: "If someone has suffered a loss, and their former employer has been negligent, then why shouldn't they be able to recover that loss?

"People were exposed to high levels of noise and often not provided with proper ear protection."

The Manchester-based firm is actively pursuing clients in Stoke-on-Trent who could be eligible for compensation over hearing loss.

The approach comes after a landmark legal case earlier this year saw a former employee in the knitting industry successfully win damages against their workplace.

That case – Baker versus Quantum – set a precedent which meant that workers who had been exposed to noise levels of more than 80 decibels were free to pursue a legal claim. In the past noise levels of more than 90 decibels had to be proved.

Mr Bennett says the companies are obliged to disclose any noise surveys.

But he added: "Sometimes that information is not available. We use witness evidence and what we can also do is send an engineer into a factory to carry out a survey.

"Sometimes, when a company has closed down, we can set machinery working again to check noise levels.

"Or, if there is another, similar-sized, factory using the same machinery we can carry out a survey there."

Many of the Stoke-on-Trent pottery companies are no longer in business.

But Mr Bennett said: "In that case, we can pursue a claim against that company's insurers."

During the industry's peak in the mid 20th century, it employed around 70,000 people in Stoke-on-Trent.

Mr Bennett says lawyers pursuing legal claims rely largely on two pieces of statutory law, the Control of Noise in the Workplace acts of 1989 and 2005.

But there was also a document published in 1963, Noise and the Worker, which highlighted the dangers of too much noise. That set a baseline for when employers were deemed to have enough knowledge of the risks of loud machines and should have taken steps to protect employees.

Irwin Mitchell solicitors, which has offices around the country, is currently representing 12 former potters against their old employers.

Mark Allen, the firm's workplace illness expert and a specialist in industrial hearing loss, said: "Anyone who has worked around noise from 1963 can pursue a claim."

Claimant David Shaw, aged 52, is pursuing a claim through WE Solicitors. He started work at Royal Doulton's Minton factory in 1973 at the age of 16 and stayed there until he was made redundant in 1991.

Mr Shaw, of Shelton, said: "The noise was very loud and often I would have a ringing in my ears when I finished work.

"I didn't really notice my hearing, but my wife would tell me I had the TV on too loud and I would miss things people said."

For more information, or to make a legal claim, call WE Solicitors on 0800 294 3065; or Irwin Mitchell on 0800 141 2641.