Payout for Argos worker ‘deafened’ in warehouse
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Former Argos employee Tony Greatorex has been awarded £12,000 after he developed tinnitus after working at the company’s warehouse in Trafford Park. He was given the five-figure payout after he claimed that his hearing had been damaged by the ‘deafening’ noise.
His condition is so bad that he will have to wear hearing aids for the rest of his life.
The dad-of-seven, 46, from north east Manchester, started working for Argos Direct in 2001, and was transferred to the company’s Trafford Park warehouse soon after starting his employment.
His job involved taking pallets from the back of lorries over to another part of the warehouse, from where they would be moved into storage.
Mr Greatorex said that the noise was constant, mainly coming from a battery operated ‘pump truck’ which he used to lift the pallets from the back of lorries. The pump truck had hard nylon wheels and needed to run across a metal bridge between the warehouse floor and the rear of the lorry.
He added that there was even more noise from metal carrying cages and other things and that the cumulative effect of all the noise was quite literally deafening. Even so, workers were not given ear protection until the summer of 2007.
Mr Greatorex worked at Trafford Park until it closed last October but claims that he had noticed buzzing in his ear before he left, particularly if it was quiet or when he was trying to go to sleep. His doctor referred him for tests which have confirmed tinnitus, and he says he is ‘very annoyed’ at the fact Argos Direct did nothing to protect him or his workmates.
He decided to take legal action with the help of Madelene Holdsworth, a specialist injury lawyer in hearing loss cases.
She said that Mr Greatorex was quite young to be suffering from this sort of hearing loss, but that Argos had admitted liability for their negligence and they managed to reach a settlement. The settlement includes an amount allocated for him to buy hearing aids.