Ear-splitting music deafening bar and club workers

The UK’s 568,000 bar, pub and club workers are being subjected to music so loud that they could lose or permanently damage their hearing, according to a report published jointly today (Wednesday) by RNID and the TUC.

’Noise overload’ shows that music played in UK nightclubs is so loud that in some cases its like working next to an airplane taking off. Currently over 170,000 UK workers suffer deafness, tinnitus or other ear conditions. The report argues that not enough is being done to protect the hearing of bar, club and pub workers from music played well above legal safe levels.

Local authorities are failing to enforce the Noise at Work regulations under which employers have a legal duty to protect their employees’ hearing. Protection includes steps such as reviewing venue layouts, ensuring breaks for staff are in a noise-safe space and supplying and enforcing the wearing of effective protection such as earplugs (see notes to editor). Bar, club and pub workers are due to get increased protection from tighter Noise at Work laws, introduced by the EU, that will protect workers’ hearing but these won’t apply to the leisure industry until 2008 and without proper enforcement, by local authorities, will be ineffective.

Frances O’Grady, TUC Deputy General Secretary, said:

Ear-splitting noise levels are deafening and damaging the hearing of the UK’s bars, clubs and pubs workers. Employers can take simple steps to reduce the damage being done to staff without turning clubs into libraries. But it is up to local authorities to monitor and enforce the rules put in place to protect employees from noise overload.

RNID, spokesperson, Mark Hoda, said:

Many employers in bars and clubs are currently in breach of the law. Although the leisure industry has lobbied for more time to prepare for the new lower enforcement limits set by the EU Directive, there is more which can be done now, such as altering staff shifts, providing noise-safe rest space and ensuring staff wear good protection.

Because noise damage is cumulative and the effects not immediate, employers often fail to enforce hearing protection for their staff. And yet, a simple measure of wearing quality earplugs would protect these workers from long-term irreparable hearing damage.

With Christmas just around the corner, giving all bar staff quality earplugs would be the best present a bar or club owner could offer.

Findings from ’noise overload’

Recent RNID research shows that many people working in Britain’s bars, clubs and pubs are being exposed to dangerously loud music at work, with noise levels as high as 110dB(A) - equivalent to being within two feet of an aircraft taking off.

Exposure to loud noise can cause permanent hearing damage. Around 170,000 people in the UK suffer deafness, tinnitus or other ear conditions as a result of exposure to excessive noise at work. Alongside noise levels, how long and how often people are exposed to noise contributes to hearing damage.

Britain’s pubs, bars and nightclubs employ 568,000 people, up by 153,000 from 1992, as bar staff glass collectors, security staff and DJs. There are 1750 nightclubs in the UK.

Employers have a legal duty under the UK Noise at Work Regulations 1989 to take action to protect employees’ hearing if they are exposed to noise above 80 dB(A) on a daily basis and can be prosecuted if they break this law. There is little evidence of these protections being enforced in pubs, clubs and bars.

RNID and TUC are calling on employers to: implement noise removal and limitation measures through acoustics and the design and layout of venues, inform workers about the dangers of exposure to noise, provide workers with suitable and effective hearing protection and regular breaks away from loud music and provide regular free hearing tests to employees.

On 15 February 2006 UK employers will be subject to a European Directive that tightens employees’ protection from noise by lowering the workplace noise levels at which employers must take action. Although the leisure industry has won a two year derogation and will not have to implement the requirements until 2008.

RNID and TUC are calling on local authorities and the Health and Safety Executive to ensure mechanisms are in place to ensure the current noise at work regulations are enforced and to ensure the leisure industry is prepared for the new EU regulations.