What was the Occupational Group Procedure (OGP)?
A detailed procedure, the Occupational Group Procedure (OGP), was agreed in April 2001 with the claimants’ solicitors for processing Group 3 claims. Under this procedure, a claimant who was not confirmed in either Group 1 or 2 (occupations where, in the coal mining industry, the use of hand-held vibratory or percussive tools was a substantial or significant part of the job) was required to provide three witness statements, each confirming exposure to vibration. These statements and any other evidence was then investigated to determine whether the claim could be accepted. If, after consideration of these statements, Capita maintained the denial and this was not accepted by the claimant, a disputes procedure could be invoked, which allowed for submission of further evidence. If, after this, the claim continued to be denied, the parties may have agreed to forward the case to the Vibration Reference Panel (VRP) – a panel of two mining experts and a legal representative, jointly appointed b
