Industrial deafness
Industrial deafness isn’t the same as losing your hearing suddenly from a loud noise or injury. It happens over time from working in a noisy environment. If you’ve lost hearing because of this, you may be able to claim compensation.
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Who can make an industrial deafness claim
To make a claim, you need to be considered a worker under Queensland workers’ compensation laws.
If you’re not working right now, you can still make a claim if you:
- would usually be working
- retired less than a year ago.
You also need to:
- be diagnosed with industrial deafness
- have a work capacity certificate from your doctor confirming the diagnosis
- have worked in Queensland for five years or more in a job where noise contributed to your hearing loss.
If your claim’s accepted
Industrial deafness compensation is given as a lump sum payment.
We’ll talk to you about what this means during the claim process.
Getting a hearing assessment
If your claim’s accepted, we’ll book you a hearing test with an audiologist. A specialist will look at your results to see whether any long-term hearing loss is linked to your job.
A level of permanent damage will be applied to your injury. This is known as the degree of permanent impairment (DPI).
Your DPI can be 0%.
Your lump sum offer
We’ll make a compensation offer based on the results of your assessment, considering exclusions like:
- whether any hearing loss happened outside Queensland or while you were self-employed
- 5% of hearing loss that occurs naturally in a person’s life
- hearing loss already counted in previous assessments.
To learn more, see section 9 (Hearing) in the Office of Industrial Relations’ Guide to Evaluating Permanent Impairment.
Accepting or rejecting the offer
It’s your choice whether to accept or reject the lump sum offer.
Before deciding, you should think about whether you also want to make a common law claim for damages against your employer. You might do this if you believe your employer was ‘at fault’ for your hearing loss.
Learn more about lump sum payment offers.
If your claim isn’t accepted
Find out what happens if your claim isn’t accepted and what your options are.
If your hearing gets worse after you’ve claimed
You can make a claim again every three years if your hearing gets worse. The same claim process and exclusions will apply.
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