WINNING COMPENSATION

LEGAL RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may/june 2025 :: RMTnews 26 Thompsons Solicitors has successfully secured compensation for two track workers who developed Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS). One member was awarded £12,000 in compensation after more than three decades of using high-vibration tools without adequate safety measures in place. The worker, 65, was employed as a Track Worker and later a Team Leader for Network Rail and its predecessors at various locations between 1989 and his retirement in 2024. Throughout his career, he used rail drills, hand drills, angle grinders, and disc cutters to perform tasks such as drilling sleepers, hammering bonds to rails, grinding rust, and cutting concrete and various types of rail materials. Despite spending 32 years using vibrating tools, he was not provided with proper health surveillance or exposure monitoring in the early years of his employment. The worker first experienced intermittent blanching and pain in 2019, prompting assessments by occupational health. However, despite reporting symptoms, he was repeatedly deemed fit to work with vibrating tools, with no diagnosable condition identified in 2019 and again in 2021. It was only after presenting photographic evidence of finger blanching in 2023 that he was finally diagnosed with HAVS and Dupuytren’s contracture in May and July 2023, respectively. Although he transitioned to an office role in November 2021 due to a separate back condition, the damage from decades of excessive vibration exposure had already been done. He believes that the lack of adherence to health and safety regulations, inadequate risk assessments, and poor tool time management contributed to his condition. While wrist-worn monitoring devices and guidance on tool usage were introduced in later years, they came too late to prevent long-term injury. The worker pursued a claim through his RMT membership, arguing that Network Rail failed in its duty to assess and control vibration risks, monitor tool use, and implement preventative measures. The claim was successfully settled out of court, with the worker securing compensation. Network Rail admitted liability. Thompsons Solicitors also successfully secured compensation for another rail maintenance worker who developed HAVS after years of using high-vibration tools without proper safety measures in place. The worker, aged 57, was employed as a Process Leader for twenty years for Wabtec in Doncaster, where he carried out tasks such as grinding, welding, and using rivet guns, impact drivers, and needle guns—with the needle guns causing the most intense vibration exposure. Despite working long shifts with frequent overtime, he was not trained on the risks of vibration exposure, and in the earlier years, there was no monitoring of his exposure or proper health surveillance in place. While the symptoms of HAVS first appeared in 2012, he was not assessed for the condition until 2021 —nearly a decade after symptoms WINNING COMPENSATION HAVS: Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome leads to long term effects including finger blanching. Union wins compensation for Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) cases