11 - Noise in the Workplace

Summary

A worker's health and welfare can be seriously prejudiced unless appropriate measures are taken to ensure that the relevant employee is not unduly exposed to noise and vibration. As far as the legal controls over noise in the workplace are concerned, the relevant controls take the form of both common law and statutory controls. Each is now dealt with, in turn.

COMMON LAW

Place of work

An employer's common law duty to protect their employee from excessive noise is derived from the ordinary rules of employer's liability. An employer is under a duty at common law to ensure that their employees have a safe place of work and that a safe place of work is maintained. Such a duty embraces an obligation to ensure that the employee does not sustain injury, as a result of exposure to noise and vibration in the workplace.

The duty incumbent on the employer to provide a safe place of work for the employee remains when the employee is sent to work away from the premises that are under the control of the employer. However, the employer's duty in such circumstances is much lower. In determining the extent of the duty that is owed, each situation requires to be decided on its own facts. In some circumstances, the law will require an employer to carry out an inspection of the relevant premises to which their employee is sent to ascertain its condition. If the premises to which the relevant employee is sent presents an obvious potential risk to the employee, the employer is under a duty to inspect the relevant premises to ascertain its safety. However, there is no relevant case law on the application of this general principle in relation to a situation in which the relevant danger emanates from noise. However, in most situations in which noise could present a risk to the employee's health the relevant state of affairs would be readily identifiable, normally by virtue of the existence of the relevant plant, etc. capable of creating the noise, or by virtue of the nature of the operations that are being carried out on the premises. In such a case, the law would, it is suggested, impose a duty on the employer to inspect the premises and also take such measures to ensure that the employee did not suffer injury by way of exposure to noise or vibration.