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OSHA Announces
Final Rule Covering Employer Paid Personal Protective Equipment
The U.S.
Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) has announced a final rule on employer-paid personal protective
equipment (PPE). Under the rule, all PPE, with a few exceptions,
will be provided at no cost to the employee. OSHA anticipates
that this rule will have substantial safety benefits that will
result in more than 21,000 fewer occupational injuries per year.
The rule will be published in the Federal Register on November
15, 2007.
"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," said 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."
The final
rule contains a few exceptions for ordinary safety-toed footwear,
ordinary prescription safety eyewear, logging boots, and ordinary
clothing and weather-related gear. The final rule also clarifies
OSHA's requirements regarding payment for employee-owned PPE
and replacement PPE. While these clarifications have added several
paragraphs to the regulatory text, the final rule provides employees
no less protection than they would have received under the 1999
proposed standard.
The rule
also provides an enforcement deadline of six months from the
date of publication to allow employers time to change their existing
PPE payment policies to accommodate the final rule.
Source: OSHA News Release 11/14/07
The amendments
for 29 CFR 1910.132 Personal Protective Equipment are listed
in the section below.
PART 1910—[AMENDED]
1. The
authority citation for subpart I of 29 CFR part 1910 is revised
to read as follows:
Authority:
Sections 4, 6, and 8 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 653, 655, and 657); Secretary of Labor’s
Order No. 12–71 (36 FR 8754), 8–76 (41 FR 25059), 9–83
(48 FR 35736), 1–90 (55 FR 9033), 6–96 (62 FR 111),
3–2000 (65 FR 50017), 5–2002 (67 FR 65008), or 5–2007
(72 FR 31160), as applicable, and 29 CFR Part 1911.
2. A new
paragraph (h) is added to § 1910.132, to read as follows:
§
1910.132 General requirements.
* * * * *
(h) Payment
for protective equipment.
(1) Except
as provided by paragraphs (h)(2) through (h)(6) of this section,
the protective equipment, including personal protective equipment
(PPE), used to comply with this part, shall be provided by the
employer at no cost to employees.
(2) The
employer is not required to pay for non-specialty safety-toe
protective footwear (including steel-toe shoes or steel-toe boots)
and nonspecialty prescription safety eyewear, provided that the
employer permits such items to be worn off the job-site.
(3) When
the employer provides metatarsal guards and allows the employee,
at his or her request, to use shoes or boots with built-in metatarsal
protection, the employer is not required to reimburse the employee
for the shoes or boots.
(4) The
employer is not required to pay for:
(i) The
logging boots required by 29 CFR 1910.266(d)(1)(v);
(ii) Everyday
clothing, such as longsleeve shirts, long pants, street shoes,
and normal work boots; or
(iii)
Ordinary clothing, skin creams, or other items, used solely for
protection from weather, such as winter coats, jackets, gloves,
parkas, rubber boots, hats, raincoats, ordinary sunglasses, and
sunscreen.
(5) The
employer must pay for replacement PPE, except when the employee
has lost or intentionally damaged the PPE.
(6) Where
an employee provides adequate protective equipment he or she
owns pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section, the employer
may allow the employee to use it and is not required to reimburse
the employee for that equipment. The employer shall not require
an employee to provide or pay for his or her own PPE, unless
the PPE is excepted by paragraphs (h)(2) through (h)(5) of this
section.
(7) This
paragraph (h) shall become effective on February 13, 2008. Employers
must implement the PPE payment requirements no later than
May 15, 2008.
Note to
§ 1910.132(h): When the provisions of another OSHA standard
specify whether or not the employer must pay for specific equipment,
the payment provisions of that standard shall prevail.
The complete
90 page Federal Register publication explaining the new changes
can be found by clicking on the following link:
Download the New OSHA PPE Rules
General
Industry Safety Regulations On CD
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