BT workers seek compensation for exposure risks
Just days after it was announced that Communication Workers Union voted in favour of BT’s pay deal that would see a 9.3% increase over three years, the union is urging its members to seek compensation for tinnitus and deafness.
Compensation claims are currently being examined by a Cardiff County Court, after the union accused the telco firm of negligence. Solicitors involved in the cases have been asked to consider a Group Litigation order, which is typically time sensitive.
As a result of the recent events, the union has now begun urging all its workers believed to be suffering from deafness or tinnitus to file claims against the firm. The BT engineers who have used amplifier tone sets or oscillators in the past are subject to the greatest risk, said the union leaders. According to the union, these workers may have been negligently put at risk by being exposed to unnecessarily high noise levels.
The CWU has said the workers will be eligible for compensation if they were given green or green and yellow tone sets to use and may file a claim against the firm. According to union leaders, the average award will range around £7,000, but some unique cases could be much higher.
The move is just days after the union voted in an overwhelming majority to end the industrial dispute with the telco firm over pay increases. The pay raise will be backdated to January and will begin in more than 50,000 workers’ pay packets starting in August.
BT is still waiting on the on the outcome of the High Court proceedings in London undertaken by Trustees seeking clarification on the Crown Guarantee scope of the agreement for its pension scheme.