Council fined £60,000 over vibration injuries

Hand-arm Vibration Syndrome causes symptoms including pain, weakness, and loss of feeling (stock image)

A council has been fined £60,000 after workers continued to use vibrating tools despite sustaining injuries.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees at work.

One road maintenance worker, whose job included repairing potholes, kept working with vibrating tools for 14 years after getting a Hand-arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) diagnosis.

Andrew Bramidge, regeneration and environment director at Rotherham Council, said it "fully accepts" the court's judgement on its past shortcomings.

The road worker was diagnosed in 2005 and, despite recommendations to limit exposure, was allowed to work with vibrating tools until the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) investigation began in 2019.

'Grossly underestimated'

The investigation found multiple employees kept using the equipment despite receiving the same or similar diagnoses.

They regularly worked beyond the exposure limit because the vibration magnitude of tools was "grossly underestimated", an HSE spokesperson said.

Workers were incentivised to continue using the tools through a bonus scheme and overtime work, which "inevitably led to high levels of exposure".

People were only moved to other tasks when their health deteriorated.

At Sheffield Magistrates' Court on December 17 the local authority was told to pay £5,775,70 in costs along with the fine.

Mr Bramidge said: "The safety and wellbeing of our workforce remains our highest priority."

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.