Council fined £60,000 for exposing road workers to risks from vibrating tools

Rotherham Council has been fined £60,000 after a roadworker diagnosed with a painful condition was allowed to carry on working for 14 years.

Sheffield Magistrates’ Court heard that the worker, who was employed by the roads maintenance department, used vibrating tools to carry out tasks, including repairing potholes, for more than 20 years.

Although he was diagnosed with “hand arm vibration syndrome” in 2005, it was only when the Health and Safety Executive started an investigation in late 2019 that the man was finally told to stop using vibrating tools.

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PHAVS is considered an occupational disease, which is caused by prolonged and regular exposure to vibration and can result in numbness, tingling, loss of nerve sensitivity, pain, and muscle weakness. The HSE’s investigation also found that other employees continued to work with vibrating tools after they had been diagnosed.

File pic: Sheffield Magistrates’ Court heard the employee worked in the road maintenance department, carrying out tasks including repairing potholes, for more than 20 years,  Picture: Jane Barlow/PA WireFile pic: Sheffield Magistrates’ Court heard the employee worked in the road maintenance department, carrying out tasks including repairing potholes, for more than 20 years,  Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire
File pic: Sheffield Magistrates’ Court heard the employee worked in the road maintenance department, carrying out tasks including repairing potholes, for more than 20 years, Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

The court heard that while a system of occupational health surveillance was in place, it was “inadequate” as there was either no implementation, or inconsistent implementation, of the recommendations and actions to be taken.

Recommendations following health surveillance of employees weren’t acted upon or used to identify risks.

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

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They were allowed to work up to the recommended exposure limit, and because of inaccurate data used to calculate vibration exposure “inevitably” worked beyond it on a regular basis. They were then only moved to other tasks when their health deteriorated.

Rotherham Council pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,775.

HSE lawyer Kate Harney said: “Rotherham Council had been exposing employees to the risks arising from the use of vibrating tools for a significant period of time.

"They fell below expected standards and appropriate enforcement was taken by the HSE. This was also not an isolated incident, with other staff working in the council’s road maintenance division also exposed to risks to their health, due to an unhealthy working culture where these exposures inadequately monitored.”

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The council’s director of regeneration Andrew Bramidge said it was committed to “continuos improvement”, adding: “We welcome the court’s comments that there is clear evidence of the steps the council has taken to voluntarily resolve the problem, our high level of cooperation with the investigation and that there are now effective health and safety procedures in place.”

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