Land Rover fined

EXCLUSIVE by Ben Lindon

19 July. Updated: 03 August 17:29

LAND Rover has been fined after ten of its workers suffered serious injuries at its Lode Lane plant.
The vehicle manufacturer has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after staff suffered effects associated with the use of vibrating hand tools.
Land Rover bosses pleaded guilty to the charges of 'failing to to take into account the risks in relation to activities at its plant', the Observer learned this week.
The firm has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £60,606 costs after an HSE investigation in 2007 into the working practises of two employees from the town.
The members of staff worked in the Weld Destruct Section where air chisels are used to undo welds on cars to test the strength of them.
Two cases of Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) were reported in December 2006.
The following investigation found vibrating hand tools were being used across the plant without assessment or management of risk and, when a health surveillance regime was then made effective, other cases came to light.
Solihull magistrates also heard there was no system in place to measure how long was being spent using the tools by each employee or the levels of vibration.
The recommended amount of time for one of the tools to be used was one hour per day per person, but it had been in use for three hours per day.
In all, ten employees were thought to be affected by ill health attributable to the use of vibrating hand tools at the Solihull plant.
"The lack of assessment of risk or time spent working with the tools appears to be an oversight on the company's behalf," magistrates said.
They added there was no previous record of this happening and an improvement notice was served in 2007 which was complied with.
No employees had been prevented from continuing in the job.
HSE inspector Gareth Langston said Land Rover had systematically failed to assess and manage the risk arising from using these tools and that some employees were found to be using vibrating hand tools for periods of time far in excess of the recommended limits.
"The fact that sister plant Jaguar had addressed the issues does suggest that this particular instance was an oversight on the part of the company," he added.
He added that lessons needed to be learned by employers to ensure that working practises are suitably assessed for any risk.
"Employers must ensure that the use of vibrating hand tools is properly managed, and it is unacceptable that Land Rover did not do this as this is a disabling condition involving pain and significant loss of hand function and is usually irreversible in later stages," he said.
Despite repeated calls to Land Rover by the Observer a press statement had yet to be released at the time of going to press.