In accordance with the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations, it is the duty of employers to provide, free of charge, Personal Protective Equipment to all their employees. This is especially important to you if your occupation involves working in a factory, warehouse or construction; i.e. in places were on a daily basis you may be exposed to dangers where PPE would be needed to prevent an injury.
In most circumstances, PPE should only be used as a last resort, as employees should have already been fully trained on how to use equipment within the workplace safely and efficiently, and general hazards should not be existent. Ideally there should also be signs and notices up displaying instructions on how to operate equipment, and what to do in case of an emergency. However, despite this, some hazards may still remain.
For example, if you are working on a building site, then it is a well known fact that you should be provided with a safety helmet. Even if you consider yourself to be experienced within the building trade, there is still a risk of falling debris which would be likely to cause head injuries if you were not wearing protective headwear. Another example would be if your occupation involves working with power tools, then you should be provided, free of charge, eyewear and protective earmuffs. Even if you are using this sort of equipment properly, and as trained and instructed, this would not necessarily prevent the chance of unseen debris flying off and hitting you in the eye. Neither would it prevent the combination of both sound level and the duration of exposure of very high-level sounds causing a hazard to your hearing.
Because of this it is absolutely compulsory that you must be provided with fully working and fitting protective goggles/glasses and protective earplugs/earmuffs to prevent this uncontrollable hazard.
Even if your occupation does not involve working on a construction site or using particular power tools, this doesn’t mean the regulations would not apply to you. Other hazards may still apply in other workplaces, such as harmful and irritant chemicals, electric appliances, harmful gases and vapours, or sharp objects or materials. All these may require PPE to prevent you from being injured.
So, whether it is protective headwear, eyewear, overalls, gloves, footwear or even respiratory equipment, under the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations, employers are required to, by law, provide you with fully working and fitting safety equipment to prevent you from being injured from uncontrollable hazards occurring within the workplace.
So, if you believe your injury was sustained because of a failure to provide Personal Protective Equipment that was either faulty, ill fitting, or just not provided at all, then give us a call today and we can give you free, no obligation advice as to whether you would have a claim for your personal injury.