Pain, Tinnitus, Hearing Loss, etc. Looking to Make a Claim Against Employer.

Hi everyone, I'm happy to have found this forum that has sections with active participants. I posted on a hyperacusis forum years ago that hardly sees traffic anymore and am hoping to gather feedback here.

The reason for today's post is that I am having difficulty at work where I'm a call center agent and have been experiencing ear pain, T and noticed some hearing loss over the course of the past year. When I started working there in 2014, I wore Etymotic musician's earplugs with 9 dB attenuators (filters) and over the past few months, upgraded to with 15 dB, but my ears continue to hurt. I did get an ear infection that was diagnosed by an ENT doctor around Feb 2015 - antibiotics were prescribed but I didn't have it filled as I misplaced the prescription, and the infection eventually disappeared. The pain and ringing did not. I also noticed that I now have to turn the volume higher when watching videos on my laptop, stuff on TV and especially when I'm tired, I have to ask both customers on the phone and cashiers in public, to repeat themselves. Classic sign of hearing loss, I'm afraid.

Knowing I had to make a change and get out of that call center asap, I started asking my boss for time off in May and June 2015, but because our team / shift has been chronically understaffed and a new trainee left without notice, my requests were all denied. This, despite the fact I pleaded for mercy given my symptoms of daily pain, T and feeling of hearing loss. My vacation request was recently escalated to my employer's HR department and I should find out the news in a couple of days. All I want is 1-2 weeks so I can try and look for another ENT doctor since my current one refused to write a proper letter that would have let me file for paid leave or short term disability.

Now here are my questions: has anyone in the community been successful in getting paid leave, short/long term disability or even taken legal action against an employer? On the legal front, I was even reading about the case of a former BT (British Telecom) call center agent who was awarded £ 90,000 (~$138,000 USD) back around the turn of the 21st century as a result of the ill effects of acoustic shock (of which pain, T and hearing loss are consequences). I'm still in the early stages where all I want (for now) is to get vacation leave approved, but am thinking about escalating this, if only I could get an ENT doctor to write me a proper letter with a recommendation for time off and the reason (diagnosis).

 

Yes You Need to go to a psychiatrist mine put me on AD for OCD which makes sense cause we are obsessing over the noise in our ears. I took a 4 month leave.