By Susan Zachem

GCIU member wears ear plugs to protect against press noise. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's proposed new rule would require employers to pay for ear plugs and other personal protective equipment.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is making its policy regarding who pays for personal protective equipment (PPE) formal with a proposed new rule.

Under OSHA's proposal, employers will be required to pay for all PPE except some safety-toe shoes, prescription safety eyewear, and boots required in the logging industry.

OSHA Administrator Charles N. Jeffress said the "proposed requirement would give better protection to workers against injury, illness or death. Employers are in a better position to select and provide the correct equipment needed to protect against specific job hazards."

The agency has long enforced its general assumption that, since various safety and health standards require employers to provide PPE as a supplement to – or in some cases as a substitute for – engineering and administrative controls, employers must pay for PPE.

However, some employers interpreted "provide" as merely making PPE available to employees and have been charging workers for gloves, respiratory masks, and other required safety equipment.

Unions have complained that many of these employers are in low-wage and dangerous industries, such as poultry and fish-cleaning plants, where the lack of such basic safety equipment as wire mesh gloves can mean dangerous knife wounds. Since the gloves are expensive, low-wage workers who can't afford them go without protection.

OSHA tried to clarify its enforcement position in an October 1994 memorandum to field staff. That memo said employers are obligated to pay for PPE except in limited situations.

However, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) in October 1997 vacated OSHA's citation against Union Tank Car that was based on the memorandum.

OSHA said the shift in costs for PPE is projected to be less than $62 million a year for the 800,000 employers who provide PPE. However, the savings from avoiding injuries caused by not using or misusing PPE will be an estimated $288 million a year, according to OSHA.

The proposed rule would revise OSHA's personal protective equipment standards covering workers in general industry, construction, marine terminals, shipyards, and longshoring.

Equipment covered by the proposed rule includes face and eye protection, such as goggles and safety glasses; hand and arm protection, such as gloves and rubber sleeves; hearing protection, such as ear plugs and muffs; protective clothing, such as aprons; and respiratory protection, such as respirators and filter respirators.

Also covered are head protection, personal fall arrest system equipment, head protection, foot protection, fire-fighting PPE, lifesaving equipment, protective clothing for health-related substances, and such other protective equipment as emergency showers and insulating blankets.

Under the proposed rule, employers would not have to pay for safety-toe footwear and prescription safety eyewear if all three of these conditions are met: the employer permits such footwear or eyewear to be worn off the job-site; the footwear or eyewear is not used at work in a manner that renders it unsafe for use off the job-site; and such footwear or eyewear is not designed for special use on the job.

OSHA noted that many federal safety and health standards and some states with OSHA-approved occupational safety and health plans already require employers to pay for PPE. The state plans include those in Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, and North Carolina.