Posted By Jessica Nicholls I know that law dictates that employers must bear the cost of PPE, however my current employers ask temporary workers to pay for their safety footwear. I have made the company aware of thier legal obligation - however they are not keen to change their policy, as we do have a number of temps, who are only with the company for a few weeks, or possibly months. Does anyone else deal with similar issues? Can anyone advise me of ways of dealing with this? Thank you Jessica

Posted By Jack Temporary workers may or may not be employees. If they are employees then the company must provide (and pay for)ppe (I'm assuming here that your risk assessment has shown it to be necessary - and that other measures to control the risk are reasonably practicable). As Nick says Section 9 applies. If your temps are agency staff then the agency would (normally) be the employer and would therefore have to provide the ppe. Of course, your company would have to ensure they had the ppe (ie not permit them to work without it). They could also be self employed (and this applies to some agency staff), in which case they would have to provide their own ppe (and again your company would have to ensure they had the ppe - ie not permit them to work without it). Don't forget that this applies only to ppe. ie it doesn't apply to uniforms, ordinary working clothes nor chefs whites.

Posted By Nick House As your employer seems happy to contravene sec. 9 of the HASAW, then may I suggest that due to todays litigious society, you keep all documentation relating to this discussion with your superiors. This should include your recommendations, and their responses. This is purely to cover yourself should anything untoward happen. Regards, Nick.