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Hearing loss group clear hurdle | Stuff.co.nz
A group of people with hearing loss injuries are celebrating after their claim of discrimination by ACC was accepted by the Human Rights Commission.
The group of nine, represented by the National Foundation for the Deaf, submitted that ACC's hearing-loss threshold before it will accept a claim, and its age-deduction scale, were both discriminatory on the grounds of age and disability.
ACC will now be invited to participate in mediation. If it rejects that offer, the claimants can apply to escalate their case to a class action, to be heard by the Human Rights Tribunal.
Under ACC's threshold – introduced in July 2010 – a person must have a hearing loss of at least 6 per cent before the organisation will consider a claim.
The age scale deducts a percentage from the total hearing loss depending on the person's age, whether or not the hearing loss is age-related.
One of the claimants, Steve Clay, said he was "rapt" that the case had cleared its first hurdle.
"I was very happy, not just for my sake but for everybody concerned."
Mr Clay, 55, has worked in the printing industry for 35 years and has 35 to 38 per cent hearing loss. He was told that at least 7 to 8 per cent was work-related, with the rest possibly down to a genetic cause.
However, ACC would not contribute even partial costs toward his $3400 hearing aids, which he ended up paying for himself.
He was in the claim for the long haul, he said. "As New Zealanders we tend to roll over a little bit and I thought, `Well, bugger it – I'm not going to this time."'
The threshold and age deductions had shut thousands of people out of the ACC scheme, foundation chief executive Louise Carroll said.
"Noise attacks the tones of our hearing we use for speech discrimination, and the way different tones are rated. It can take a lot of damage in that area to get a total 6 per cent loss."
The foundation was "absolutely delighted" that the commission had accepted the submission, she said. "We're not going to sit back and see these many thousands of people being affected."
She expected the number of claimants to grow. "We're quite happy to hear from people."
ACC Minister Nick Smith said he had not had a chance to discuss with ACC whether to proceed with mediation. "We don't want a dispute, so if it's possible to resolve it through mediation then I as minister am quite open to that, but I want to formally get advice."
A group of people with hearing loss injuries are celebrating after their claim of discrimination by ACC was accepted by the Human Rights Commission.
The group of nine, represented by the National Foundation for the Deaf, submitted that ACC's hearing-loss threshold before it will accept a claim, and its age-deduction scale, were both discriminatory on the grounds of age and disability.
ACC will now be invited to participate in mediation. If it rejects that offer, the claimants can apply to escalate their case to a class action, to be heard by the Human Rights Tribunal.
Under ACC's threshold – introduced in July 2010 – a person must have a hearing loss of at least 6 per cent before the organisation will consider a claim.
The age scale deducts a percentage from the total hearing loss depending on the person's age, whether or not the hearing loss is age-related.
One of the claimants, Steve Clay, said he was "rapt" that the case had cleared its first hurdle.
"I was very happy, not just for my sake but for everybody concerned."
Mr Clay, 55, has worked in the printing industry for 35 years and has 35 to 38 per cent hearing loss. He was told that at least 7 to 8 per cent was work-related, with the rest possibly down to a genetic cause.
However, ACC would not contribute even partial costs toward his $3400 hearing aids, which he ended up paying for himself.
He was in the claim for the long haul, he said. "As New Zealanders we tend to roll over a little bit and I thought, `Well, bugger it – I'm not going to this time."'
The threshold and age deductions had shut thousands of people out of the ACC scheme, foundation chief executive Louise Carroll said.
"Noise attacks the tones of our hearing we use for speech discrimination, and the way different tones are rated. It can take a lot of damage in that area to get a total 6 per cent loss."
The foundation was "absolutely delighted" that the commission had accepted the submission, she said. "We're not going to sit back and see these many thousands of people being affected."
She expected the number of claimants to grow. "We're quite happy to hear from people."
ACC Minister Nick Smith said he had not had a chance to discuss with ACC whether to proceed with mediation. "We don't want a dispute, so if it's possible to resolve it through mediation then I as minister am quite open to that, but I want to formally get advice."