In the News
12/11/2007 - Personal Protective Equipment
Please be advised that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently promulgated a final regulation concerning payment for personal protective equipment (PPE). This final rule covers workers and employers in general industry, shipyards, marine terminals, long shoring, and construction and will be effective on February 14, 2008.
This new rule requires employers to provide all personal protective equipment required by OSHA at no cost to the employees, with the following exceptions:
- Non-specialty safety-toe protective footwear, including steel-toe shoes or boots, and non-specialty prescription safety eyewear, providing that the employer allows the employees to wear the protective gear off the job site;
- Shoes or boots with built-in metatarsal protection, provided that the employer does provide metatarsal guards for use over regular footwear;
- Logging boots;
- Everyday clothing, including long-sleeve shirts, long pants, street shoes, and normal work boots;
- Ordinary clothing or skin creams used solely for protection from the weather, e.g., winter coats, jackets, gloves, rubber boots, sunglasses, and sunscreen; and
- Equipment that is purchased by the employee, provided, that the employer makes available adequate PPE at no cost.
It should be noted that the rule also addresses situations where the employee has lost or intentionally damaged the PPE. In these instances, the employer is not required to pay for replacement PPE. Further, OSHA defines “lost” as including instances where the employee “comes to work without PPE that has been issued to him.” In these cases, the employer is not permitted to allow the employee to work without the proper PPE. Because these situations may result in employees being disciplined for failure to have the proper PPE, it would be prudent to address how this aspect of the regulation will be implemented in the workplaces represented by local unions in your respective trade division or trade conference.