HAVS - What Should Employers Do to Keep You Safe?

Posted on: 15 Mar 2021 - 2 mins read

Associate Solicitor-Advocate, Industrial Disease

In many successful Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) claims, there are lots of common features. Employers perhaps didn’t put safety measures in place to protect staff who regularly use vibrating equipment, provide adequate training or act on concerns that employees had raised.

Employers in England and Wales must assess the risks posed by equipment such as pneumatic drills, grinding tools and concrete breakers, and put policies in place to manage these hazards effectively. And crucially, they must make sure members of staff are aware of the risks and how to deal with them.

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£8,500 Compensation for Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome

If your employer hasn’t done this, you’ve developed HAVS, and it can be proved that they were negligent, our specialist Industrial Disease Solicitors can help you. We have a good track record of helping people with HAVS obtain compensation, so they can get the care and support they need to live with their condition. For example:

Get in touch with us for a free claims assessment and legal advice, and we’ll be happy to speak with you about your situation. We may able to handle your case on a No Win, No Fee basis - ask us for details.

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HAVS: Employers’ Responsibilities

If you often have to use vibrating equipment at work, employers should take steps to make sure you’re not being put at risk of developing a HAVS injury. For example:

Draw up a comprehensive policy on how to manage the risks posed by vibrating equipment, including details on how people with HAVS can be helped
Identify equipment and tasks at work that could potentially cause HAVS
Change working practices to mitigate any risks that have been identified, such as rotating jobs to make sure any one person isn’t using vibrating equipment for too long, encouraging regular breaks and providing safety equipment such as vibration-proof gloves.

Making sure equipment is in a good state of repair
Make employees aware of the signs and symptoms of HAVS, the risks posed by vibrating equipment and the safety policies that have been put in place
Provide adequate training to ensure the safe use of vibrating equipment
Make sure members of staff know who to report any HAVS concerns and possible symptoms to

How Simpson Millar Can Help You

Our Industrial Disease Solicitors are experts at helping people who’ve sustained work-related injuries get the compensation they deserve. If you’ve developed HAVS and believe it’s because of your working environment, contact our specialist team for a free claims assessment and legal advice, and we’ll look at your situation.

If we take on your case, the Industrial Disease Solicitor assigned to you will begin investigating your entire working history. This will help us find out when and where you may have been exposed to the harmful vibrations that caused your HAVS.

When we’re confident we know which employer is responsible, we’ll approach their insurance company with our claim. We can give them details of the specific failings that led to your HAVS injury and we may argue they should have foreseen that you were at risk of developing the condition.

Your Industrial Disease Solicitor will also arrange for you to be assessed by an independent medical expert. They will prepare a medical report with details of your condition and your prognosis.

This is an important part of working out how much compensation you should claim, and what care, support and rehabilitation needs may have to be met.

Symptoms of HAVS may not start to show until many years after you were exposed to harmful vibrations at work, so it is well worth getting legal advice from a specialist in this area of law. Our expert Industrial Disease Solicitors are here for you, so contact us for a free claims assessment so we can discuss your claim and how we can help you.

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