Hearing loss and WSIB versus employer paid hearing aids and SIEF

[vickyp]

#102674

Forum: Community

We are an automotive group with several car dealerships, truck dealerships and body shops.  We are also a schedule 1 employer with WSIB.  We bought a car dealership complete with body shop from the previous owner who was retiring.  We inherited the staff.  Just recently, one of our body shop techs approached us to inform us that he had gone for audiometric testing and was identified as having the hearing of a 70 year old, he is 40.  He requires hearing aids.  While we have a hearing conservation program, no audiometric testing was done on him when he joined us some 2 years ago.  He admits that he wears his hearing protection in our shop, however, he has worked for numerous body shops in the past with likely little or no hearing protection. Two questions come to mind: Should we go ahead with a WSIB claim for him or should we purchase hearing aids for him to minimize potential WSIB costs’ Should/can we apply for relief through the Secondary injury enhancement fund (SIEF) since he would have sustained the hearing loss with his former employers, however, without a claim ever being made/submitted?

[vickyp]

#103071

First, the easy part. Yes, you should ensure the tech gets and uses the proper hearing protection REGARDLESS of what you decide to do about his WSIB claim.
Unfortunately, I’m not qualified nor allowed to counsel you whether to submit a WSIB claim for the tech. And even if I were, I’d need to know a whole lot more about the case. But what I can say is that if you do submit the claim, you probably should seek SIEF cost relief. The key thing will be whether you can document the extent of the hearing loss with the previous employer. And without testing records, that’s going to be tough.
Hope that helps and sorry I can’t directly tell you what to do with the WSIB claim. Pls stay in touch and let me know what happens. If things work out, maybe we should interview and/or write you up as WSIB savings case study. Glenn

[vickyp]

#103072

WSIB normally look at the last 8 to 10 years of the worker employment to determine who is responsible for the employee hearing loss. They will also check or ask you to check the sound levels at your place of employment to determine the natural environment sound levels and the work station sound levels. For the worker to be experiencing hearing problems after working 2 years at your company, the sound levels in your shop will have to exceed 120 dBA continuously for 8 hours a day and up.

[vickyp]

#103073

Awesome, Chris. And, Melvin, thanks again for weighing in. I encourage all our users to jump in and advance these threads. There’s a lot of brain power and experience out there and I sure would love to tap it to help out users with questions.

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