Employee Sustains Long-term Injury Due to Prolonged Use of Vibrating Tools
In a recent case of workplace injury, an employee at a cleaning products manufacturing firm suffered a permanent shoulder injury due to the use of vibrating tools at workplace.
The employee John Sides was working for the Barrow-based Robert McBride Ltd. He was a team leader and was using a handheld grinder for the first time to remove paint from the floor.
When Sides developed excessive pain in his right shoulder after two days of working on the grinder, he underwent a medical check up. The doctors told him that the vibration from the machine had strained his shoulder and that he had received a permanent injury, for which he would not be able to lift his hand above the shoulder level or perform daily tasks like painting and decorating.
Sides registered a complaint with his union the GMB, which asked their lawyers Thompsons Solicitors to sue Robert McBride for negligence in providing safety to its workers. A compensation claim was also made. However, the company admitted its fault and reached an out-of-court settlement with the victim.
Paul Morpeth from Thompsons Solicitors said that the injuries suffered by Sides had risked his livelihood forever. He added that a proper risk assessment of the dangers related to usage of vibrating tools could have helped in avoiding an accident like this.
Employers must provide appropriate training for their employees and conduct risk assessments of manual handling activities under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations. To reduce both lost time through work related injuries and/or potential employers liability claims, Manual Handling Training, available through Workplace Law, will be of benefit to organisations in enabling them to remain compliant with the requirement to train persons involved in manual handling activities and reduce the risk of injury.
Regional Secretary of the GMB, Tom Brennan, expressed the same sentiments when he said that the accident could have been avoided had the employer been a little more cautious while ordering a worker to do a new job. The employer should also have provided Sides with some basic training. He also confirmed the fact that the injury had been caused by the high level of vibrations.
