Occupational Hearing Loss at Work: Your Rights Under Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation

Video transcript:

Hello. This is Mike Dryden from Willig Williams and Davidson. I’m the head of our workers’ compensation department. I want to speak to people now about occupational hearing loss. Under the Pennsylvania Workers Compensation Act, you can make a claim for what’s called specific loss benefits or a lump of money that you can have access to, even if you don’t miss a day at work, if we prove that you have a certain type of hearing loss and at a certain level, if you work in a loud environment, you should have your hearing regularly checked, just as a matter of common health management. If you have your hearing checked and there is a loss in that hearing and you work in a loud environment, please feel free to contact us so that we can take a look at that and see if your loss is a the type of loss that can be claimed in Pennsylvania, or is the type of loss that could lead to a lump sum, monetary payment. Additionally, we’ve helped people get hearing aids from their employers, even when they can’t make the claim for the monetary loss that we are able to establish that the hearing loss that they have is the type of loss that would warrant hearing aids and came from their employment. We’ve been successful in that way too. Either way, if you have a hearing loss that you believe is related to noise exposure on the job, either long term noise, or you work in an environment that’s loud every day, or from sudden burst or sudden acoustic trauma. Please feel free to give us a call and we will evaluate the claim. Thank you.