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OSHA Announces Final Rule on Employer-Paid PPE

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a final rule on employer-paid personal protective equipment (PPE). Under the rule, employers will provide, at no cost to employees, almost all PPE when the PPE is used to comply with OSHA standards. The rule contains a few exceptions for ordinary safety-toed footwear, ordinary prescription safety eyewear, logging boots, and ordinary clothing and weather-related gear. It also clarifies OSHA’s requirements regarding payment for employee-owned PPE and replacement PPE.

OSHA anticipates that the rule will yield substantial safety benefits that will result in more than 21,000 fewer occupational injuries per year. “Employees exposed to safety and health hazards may need to wear personal protective equipment to be protected from injury, illness and death caused by exposure to those hazards,” says assistant secretary of labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke Jr. “This final rule will clarify who is responsible for paying for PPE, which OSHA anticipates will lead to greater compliance and potential avoidance of thousands of workplace injuries each year.”

In order to allow employers time to change their existing PPE payment policies to accommodate the final rule, the enforcement deadline is six months from the date of publication. Therefore, employers must implement the PPE payment requirements by May 15, 2008.

Related Enterprise Zones: Safety