Safety Tidbit 2.47 - Payment of PPE

Safety Tidbit 2.47 – Payment of PPE

Reference:       29 CFR 1910.132 OSHA Personal Protective Equipment

I think everyone is aware that OSHA requires the employer to pay for needed personal protective equipment [1910.132(h)(1)]. However, as with any good Federal Regulation, there are exceptions and vagaries.

According to OSHA’s Personal Protective Equipment standard (1910.132(h)(4)), the employer is not required to pay for: everyday clothing, such as long-sleeve shirts, long pants, street shoes, and normal work boots; or ordinary clothing, skin creams, or other items, used solely for protection from weather, (e.g., winter coats, jackets, gloves, parkas, rubber boots, hats, raincoats, ordinary sunglasses, and sunscreen).

Furthermore, the employer must pay for replacement PPE, interestingly, except when the employee has lost or intentionally damaged the PPE. Question, what constitutes intentionally damaging PPE? Or, for that matter, what is lost? For instance, if a worker forgets the PPE at home are they responsible to pay for the replacement PPE for the day? Unfortunately, I did not find any OSHA enforcement letters of interpretation on this matter.

I think some of the answer may come from paragraph 132(f)(3) of the PPE Standard, when the employer has reason to believe that any affected employee who has already been trained does not have the understanding and skill required, the employer shall retrain the employee. Circumstances where retraining is required include, but are not limited to, situations where:

·      Changes in the workplace render previous training obsolete; or

·      Changes in the types of PPE to be used render previous training obsolete; or

·      Inadequacies in an affected employee's knowledge or use of assigned PPE indicate that the employee has not retained the requisite understanding or skill.

Specifically, note the last entry, the bolded words. Each of these words (knowledge, use, retained, requisite understanding, and skill) can have various meanings. Ultimately, it comes down to how well the employer communicated their expectation of PPE use and care and the supervision to ensure the workers understand the expectations and the consequences. Therefore, those of us who are consultants need to ask the question: “So how do you replace your PPE?” or “How do you know when your PPE needs to be replaced?”

Unfortunately, I find many sites where the PPE is dirty, scratched and in ill-repair but neither the worker nor the employer ever thinks to evaluate or replace it.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have a burning safety or health question please let me know.