ARTBA Legal Advocacy: Safety Legal Advocacy

On November 15, 2007, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a new rule clarifying the employer/employee responsibilities for payment of personal protective equipment (PPE). The rulemaking affects most of OSHA’s PPE standards. It includes regulatory text tailored for Part 1910 - General Industry standards; Part 1926 - Construction standards; Part 1915 - Shipyard standards; Part 1917 - Marine Terminal standards; and Part 1918 - Longshoring standards.

The final rule requires employers to pay for almost all personal protective equipment that is required by OSHA’s general industry, construction, and maritime standards. If the PPE is not required, then the employer is not required to pay for it.
The final rule does not create new requirements regarding what PPE employers must provide. It does not require payment for uniforms, items worn to keep clean or other items that are not PPE.
The rule contains several exceptions for ordinary safety-toe footwear and prescription safety eyewear, logging boots, ordinary clothing, and ordinary weather related gear.
The rule only addresses the issue of who pays for PPE, not the types of PPE an employer must provide.
The employer is not required to pay for non-specialty safety-toe protective footwear (including steel-toe boots) and non-specialty prescription safety eyewear, provided that the employer permits such items to be worn off the job-site.
The employer must pay for replacement PPE, except when the employee has lost or intentionally damaged the PPE.
The employer may allow the employee to use employee-owned equipment and is not required to reimburse the employee for that equipment.
The enforcement deadline is six months from the date of publication (November 15, 2007) to allow employers time to change their existing PPE payment policies to comply with the final rule.
The Federal Register can be viewed here :
The OSHA website includes a news release on the PPE rule, Ed Foulke's (OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor) remarks, and the FACT sheet.