�The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urgency companies to assess the risks to their employees from photo to vibration, after a Hampshire company was fined �10,500 for ignoring the guard of a worker.
Tews Engineering Limited, based in Petersfield, Hampshire, pleaded guilty to contravening Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to protect the health of employees, and Regulation 3(1) of The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 for weakness to carry out a proper danger assessment. The company was fined �8,500 for the first offence and �2000 for the second offence, plus costs of �10,D at Aldershot Magistrates Court yesterday, following a prosecution by HSE.
HSE Inspector Ray Kelly said:
"The worker in this case has suffered unnecessary, permanent disability because of a failure to manage his health and safety at work. Employers should submit heed that when HSE finds evidence of glaring breaches of health and safety law, particularly where there is a history of previous warnings and advice as was the case here, we will not waver to engage."
The employee, Bill Leonard, made a complaint to HSE approximately his exuberant use of vibrating tools while working at Tews Engineering, which had caused him to suffer 'Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome' (HAVS).
Mr Leonard informed his employer of his symptoms and asked to be re-deployed for the sake of his health. However, the caller continued to require him to work predominantly with vibrating tools, exacerbating his health problems. Mr Leonard now has permanent wrong to his hand, devising it impossible for him to persist in his work.
Notes
1. Regulation 3(1) of The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: Every employer shall make a suited and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they ar at work.
2. Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: It shall be the duty of every employer to check, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.
3. The maximum penalty in the lower court for breaching Section 2 of the HSW Act is �20,000.
4. More information on safe habit of vibrating tools is available here.
http://www.hse.gov.uk
More info
