Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE as it is more informally known, is equipment which can be used or worn to protect you against risks to your health and safety. PPE is something which you should not pay for – your employer should not even ask you for a contribution. They are solely responsible for supplying it to you.
It should be of note that PPE should only be used as a last port of call where no other methods act just as well, or better, at protecting you from risks to your health and safety at work. So, if your employer is giving you PPE in order to save money as a better method of protection is more costly, this is wrong.
Your employer has a duty to protect you as much as possible from risks to your health and safety. By simply providing you with the PPE, this is not fully completing their duty – they must also train their employees in how to use it and ensure it is maintained regularly and stored correctly. Employers must also consider whether the PPE causes a danger in itself – by this I mean if there a chance of overheating whilst wearing or using PPE, or if your PPE could get caught up in machinery.
PPE can come in all shapes and sizes – from safety goggles to safety boots. It does not only serve to protect from those one-off accidents, such as a laceration to the finger, but also those injuries which are caused over time; often known as industrial diseases. The risk of getting industrial diseases such as asbestosis can be greatly reduced by the use of PPE, such as respirators. This all serves to emphasise the importance of PPE, as not only can it protect against accidents, but also potentially fatal diseases.
If you feel that you have a lack of /inadequate PPE, it is advisable to report this to your employer. If they fail to act on your reasonable requests, then you have the option of raising a grievance procedure against them. If you have suffered an injury as a result of your employer breaching their duties with regards to PPE, it is advisable to gain the advice of a specialist personal injury lawyer – this is best done directly with a law firm. I say this as there are many referral agents out there who may take your claim on just to sell it on to a firm. The firm it is sold to may not be the firm capable of providing you with the best service, but the firm who has paid the most for it.
