What to do if someone refuses to wear hearing protection.
In a noise assessment, it is common to hear a comment along the lines of ‘we’ve given them hearing protection and told them to wear it, so what else can we do’, but unfortunately that is not the end of the employer’s obligations for hearing protection.
Employers have to:
Ensure it is suitable for the noise risk via the noise assessment
Issue it to everyone who needs it.
Have a choice of styles available as not everyone will be able to wear the same thing. (E.g. some people do genuinely have smaller ear canals or more cat’s eye shaped ones so a round silicone plug may simply not fit).
Tell people where and when it needs to be worn and how to wear it (e.g. no muffs over hoods or hats, or hygiene and insertion methods for plugs).
Have signs saying where it needs to be worn.
That bit is fairly straight-forwards, but then employers also need to:
Monitor its usage to ensure it is indeed being worn and being worn correctly.
Enforce it’s usage
Take action where people are found not to be wearing it.
If people are working in a high noise area then not wearing hearing protection is not an option, no matter what the issue.
If they don’t like it, that doesn’t remove the need to wear it.
If it causes pain, that doesn’t remove the need to wear any form of hearing protection, the HSE even specifically say this in L108.
Having hearing aids is still not a reason to avoid the use of hearing protection - I have a separate article on this here: Hearing protection for hearing aid users.
If someone says they cannot wear hearing protection there are some steps to be followed:
Try different styles. If a silicone ear plug causes pain, try a foam one or ear muffs.
If there is no hearing protection which they say they can wear, they must be removed from the risk which means moving them to a job where there is no noise risk.
If there is no such low-noise job available, the unfortunate position is that they still cannot work in the high noise area without hearing protection, and as there are no other jobs, terminating employment is the only option.
A G.P. or H.R. cannot exempt someone from the use of hearing protection in a high noise area, if it is needed then it is needed.
Side-comment on the training…
I am well aware a lot of employers will huff at the idea of having to train people on how to put an ear plug in but that is part of what the HSE say is needed in L108 I’m afraid, Also… I was at a site in Swindon for a noise assessment and asked the Production Manager if they had done the training on hearing protection. He looked sad and said ‘We need to. I had a new starter a few weeks ago and handed him some ear plugs but before I could tell him where he needed to wear them he’d eaten them’…
