GKN Aerospace was prosecuted yesterday for failing its employees.
Portsmouth magistrates were told that the five workers developed advanced HAVS symptoms after prolonged use of vibrating hand tools while building engine casings at the GKN plant in East Cowes.
Their circulation problems mean their hands become white and dead in the cold, with extreme pain on warming. The nerve damage affects their ability to grip objects.
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to comply with the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations since they became law in January 2006.
The court heard that a GKN health surveillance programme identified the five employees as suffering advanced debilitating problems in 2009. However, the company continued as before and still failed to assess the risks and put controls in place to protect the significant number of remaining workers.
GKN's safety failings came to light after it fulfilled its statutory obligation to report the diagnoses to HSE. Following the HSE investigation, an improvement notice was served giving the company a timeframe to make specified improvements.
GKN Aerospace Services Ltd of Ferry Road, East Cowes, was fined a total of £26,800 and ordered to pay full costs of £8,256 after admitting four breaches of the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 between July 2005 and December 2011. The company was fined £3,400 for each of the two earlier offences and £10,000 for each of the later offences.
HSE specialist inspector Anne Bartlett said after the hearing: "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.
"As a result, five employees developed debilitating symptoms which affect all aspects of their lives, and are unlikely to ever improve. Although most of them were redeployed, the company still failed to assess the risks and implement suitable measures to protect the remaining staff until HSE stepped in at the end of 2011.
"Employers must take timely and effective measures to ensure that the health of their staff is not seriously and permanently affected as a result of the work they do.
"The most efficient and effective way of controlling exposure to hand-arm vibration is to look for new or alternative work methods which eliminate or reduce exposure to vibration."
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