Steelworkers win key vibration white finger payout

A Sheffield law firm has won a 250,000 payout for victims of the industrial injury vibration white finger (VWF) in a settlement it says could encourage thousands of other victims to come forward.

Beresfords took up the cause of 14 steelworkers employed by Noel Village Steel Founder after they suffered numbness and tingling as a result of using vibratory tools, a condition traditionally associated with mining.Beresfords' solicitor Christopher Fry said: 'The outcome reinforces the recognition that this industrial disease is not just affecting mineworkers, but is also a very real problem for thousands of workers in the steel and associated industries.'Peter Evans, of Welsh firm Hugh James Ford Simey, which acts on mining VWF cases, said the award was an achievement, but predicted that damages are unlikely to continue to top those in mining claims.

'The cases that come behind [this settlement] will probably be schemed, and as the standard of evidence is likely to be relaxed, so too are the awards under schemes likely to be lower,' he explained.Paula Rohan