A Health and Safety Executive news release yesterday reported that GKN Aerospace has been fined after a number of its employees were left with significant long-term physical disabilities due to health and safety failings.

GKN Aerospace is “one of the world’s largest independent first tier suppliers to the global aviation industry”. A GKN health surveillance programme identified five employees as suffering from advanced debilitating problems in 2009 due to their long-term use of vibrating hand tools. These employees had developed advanced symptoms of hand-vibrating syndrome, which is caused by the vibrations from such tools and results in long-term damage to circulation and nerve symptoms. The circulation issues cause the victim’s hands to become white and dead in cold conditions and causes extreme pain upon the hands warming. The nerve damage affects the ability of victims to handle and maneuver objects deftly. However, even though the employees had been identified as suffering from this problem, they continued to work as before and it failed to put in place procedures or carry out assessments to prevent other workers performing the same duties from suffering from similar problems.

GKN’s health and safety failings came to light when it fulfilled its obligations to report the diagnoses of the five employees to the Health and Safety Executive. An HSE investigation was subsequently undertaken – this found that GKN had failed to comply with the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2006 since they came into force in January 2006. An Improvement Notice served on GKN and a prosecution of the company commenced into its failure to comply with the Regulations. GKN was found guilty of failing to comply with the Regulations, fined a total of £26,800 and ordered to pay costs of £8,256.

As above, The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2006 came into force in January 2006. GKN was prosecuted under the following parts of the Regulations:

• Regulation 5(1): for failing to make suitable and sufficient assessments of the risk from vibration such as to ensure that required measures are identified to allow the employer to comply with the Regulations
• Regulation 6(1): for failing to ensure that the risk from the exposure of its employees to vibrations is eliminated at source or, so far as where it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate it, to reduce it to as low a level as is reasonably practicable

The Health and Safety Executive commented that “Work-related health risks cannot be ignored or pushed down the agenda. GKN Aerospace Services Ltd had the resources to protect its employees from the well-known effects of exposure to hand-arm vibration but failed to do so over an extended period”.

This case demonstrates that employers must be diligent in identifying potential risks to employees’ health and taking reasonably practicable steps to minimize this risk within a reasonable time frame after the identification. Failure to do so can result in criminal prosecution or a civil lawsuit for negligence and/or breach of statutory duty. It is not apparent whether the five employees concerned are currently pursuing their employer in the civil courts in a personal injury claim.

Redmans Solicitors are employment law solicitors offering employment law advice and are based in central London