Posted By Chris Hardy
Hi,
Does anyone have experiece of a claim made against them for VWF by a claiment who only worked for them for a couple of years back in the mid 80s. As with most, if not all companies we have little data from that period and certaily no electronic information. This claimant made no entries into the accident book, nor reported any problems. We are civil engineers, and when the contract finished he moved on to another employer. We can always come to an "agreement" in court but this just leaves a bad taste. Any advice will be welcome.

Posted By David Bannister
Chris, a bit like NIHL, once it occurs and a solicitor is involved, all employers who have possibly contributed to the condition will be hit with the claim.
As a gradually occuring condition, VWF is highly unlikely to appear in an accident book.
Pass this claim to the insurers for the period of the employment. Your brokers should sort this out for you.

Posted By SteveD-M
Chris
As with the previous posts every employer gets a bit of the claim..

However without going into the details of the case there could be a few mitigating factors such as is the guy a habitual smoker is the diagnosis absolutely clear - I handled a case recently where we had a new expert diagnosis and the guy turned out to have Secondary Raynaud's Syndrome, which is a more severe condition. Depends on the value of the claim how far you need to go, your insurers will advise directly.

Have a nice day...

Posted By Nigel
I've recommended leaving medicals for a while now simply to address this sort of scatter-gun approach to claims. Put simply if you've no specific evidence of what state they were in when they left you you're going to be forced to rely upon the precautionary measures you've got in place.

If you've got even the most basic of pre-employment checks hopefully it will ask for pre-existing conditions to be declared. Alternatively do you provide information to your employees on precautions/ symptoms? A step further and they'd have had a quick check over again identifying any existing problems. Finally, a rolling programme of health surveillance would catch any developing issues.

In your circumstances however a more proactive approach is more appropriate (and very much required by the HSE). What equipment is being used and for how long? What vibration levels do they produce - don't go on the manufacturer's figure they're often way out - you've got to measure it in a practical scenario. What equipment purchasing policy do you have - does it require 'low vibration' tools. Do your risk assessments address the risks from vibration?