Protective clothing and equipment must be provided free

HSE Press Release E025:04 - 18 February 2004

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding employers within the catering industry about their duty to provide workers with free personal protective equipment (PPE). The duty applies to catering employers both in the private and the public sectors.

Percy Smith, HSE Principal Inspector dealing with the catering industry said: "Recent reports to HSE from unions and groups of workers indicate that some employers providing safety shoes or other items of PPE are classing them as part of the work uniform and charging workers for them. Regrettably we receive similar reports regularly over the years. Catering employers must understand that the practice of charging in this way is illegal."

"The provision of PPE should never be the first step in dealing with risks in the workplace, anyway," Mr Smith said. "Only after all other reasonably practicable steps have been taken to prevent and control risks to an adequate level should there be recourse to PPE."

In catering, PPE may include safety shoes which are slip-resistant or with protection against objects dropped onto the feet; gloves or gauntlets to protect hands and arms from burns and cleaning agents; aprons and overalls to protect from hot splashes; and face masks and goggles to protect against cleaning agents for ovens and hot plates.

The risk of injury from slipping is higher in the catering industry than in most; and worker complaints about having to buy protective footwear feature prominently in reports reaching HSE. Avoidance of spills and leaks on to the floor, immediate cleaning of spills and provision of non-slip flooring surfaces are some key steps to achieve a high degree of control. "Each case must be considered on its merits," Mr Smith said," but sometimes, despite all these measures, slip-resistant shoes will be necessary to adequately control the risk. When this is the case, the shoes will be regarded as PPE and must be supplied free.

"Where staff turnover is rapid and the cost of personal issue equipment kept by staff when they leave is high, many employers choose not to issue any at all. In this situation, free provision of slip-resistant overshoes may be an alternative to avoiding the problem and risking breaking the law."

Notes to editors

1. Slips, trips and falls are the commonest causes of major injuries in Britain's workplaces, accounting for about a third of the total. They also account for nearly a quarter of all other non-fatal accidents reported. Action to reduce this injury toll has therefore been identified as a priority for employers in the strategic programme of HSE work up to 2010. The programme, Revitalising Health and Safety, was inaugurated in 2001 by the Government and the Health and Safety Commission.
   
   
2. Section 9 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states: "No employer shall levy or permit to be levied on any employee of his any charge in respect of anything done or provided in pursuance of any specific requirement of the relevant statutory provisions." This applies to the requirement of regulation 4(1) of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, which states that every employer must provide suitable PPE where a risk assessment has shown that there are risks to health and safety that cannot be adequately controlled by other means.

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