Builders and Contractors Exchange
Weekly Bulletin: 23 MAY 2008
Employers Have To Pay For Personal Protective Equipment
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued a final rule requiring employers to pay for the personal protective equipment (PPE) that OSHA requires workers to wear, such as hard hats, gloves, goggles, safety shoes, safety glasses, welding helmets, faceshields, and fall protection equipment. The new rule became effective on February 13, 2008, and must be fully implemented by May 15, 2008.
The new rule does not require any additional PPE, but simply clarifies that where the OSHA standards require PPE, the employer must foot the bill. Likewise, the employer generally must pay for replacement PPE, unless an employee has lost or intentionally damaged the PPE. Employers only have to pay for OSHA-required PPE and any additional PPE the employer mandates its employees use. If an employee asks to use additional PPE, or PPE that he or she already owns, then the employer does not have to pay for those items. However, an employer cannot strongarm an employee into providing his or her own PPE. Rather, an employee's use of PPE he or she owns must be completely voluntary.
There are a handful of exceptions to the new employer-pays rule that save employers from having to pay for everyday wear that they may require on the jobsite. For example, if an employer requires its employees to wear long-sleeve shirts, long pants, normal work boots, or other normal clothing, even for safety reasons, the employer does not have to pay for these items. Similarly, employers are not required to pay for ordinary weather gear, like winter coats or rain jackets, but do have to pay for extraordinary clothing for unusually severe weather conditions. Also, employers are not required to pay for ordinary safety-toe footwear or ordinary prescription safety eyewear, if the employees are allowed to wear them off the jobsite. And, if the employer pays for metatarsal guards that attach to shoes, the employer does not also have to pay for shoes with integrated metatarsal protection.
The new rule may impact some collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). If a CBA specifies that employees pay for PPE, that provision will no longer be valid, and the employer will need to renegotiate those terms to conform to the new rule.
Employers are free to choose any method of paying for PPE. For example, they may buy the PPE themselves and distribute it to their employees, give their employees allowances or vouchers to cover the cost, or reimburse the employees for the PPE. Whichever payment method an employer chooses, it should carefully document the transaction in case OSHA ever questions whether the employer is complying with the new rule.
Questions?
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This article is meant to bring awareness to this topic and is not intended to be used as legal advice.