Manufacturer vows to oppose no win-no fee compensation claims

A REDDITCH manufacturer has vowed to continue resisting no win-no fee compensation claims after successfully defending a case brought against it by a former employee.

Heartbeat Manufacturing Co was sued by the former employee, who worked for the company for 42 years.

His claim was that he had begun suffering hearing loss in 2013 following his retirement from Heartbeat in 2009.

However, after a two-day hearing at Telford County Court the claim for noise induced hearing loss was dismissed by a judge on the grounds that the claim was out of time.

Heartbeat chairman Dave Stubbings said the former employee had attempted to claim damages from the company for noise induced hearing loss, despite the fact the company had regular surveys undertaken by SEGTA, the Spring Engineering Group Training Association, to advise it on all aspects of health and safety, including potential damage to employees’ hearing from noise.

At the time relevant to the claim, Heartbeat was one of Redditch’s foremost spring manufacturers. The business is a third generation, family-owned company that now provides retail installations and shop fitting from its base in Arthur Street.

Mr Stubbings said: “It was important to us to win this case as we have always operated with the best interests of our employees at heart. We currently employ over 100 staff directly with up to 100 agency staff working with us at peak periods.

“We therefore wanted to put on record our commitment to health and safety and that we would never knowingly expose any of our staff to any health risk whatsoever.

“Like many other companies in the UK, we are totally opposed to the growing practice of ex-employees attempting to claim compensation for injuries they allege they suffered as a result of their former employment.”

He said Heartbeat would continue to resist spurious claims encouraged by the no win-no fee culture.

“It is our company policy to oppose this at every opportunity,” he said.
 

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