Hello. I am after some guidance about the supply of prescription safety eyewear for roofing employees. I am aware of the VDU regs but there is some confusion if we have to supply prescription safety eyewear for our builders. We expect them to wear safety eyewear when working and an enquiry has come to me regarding people who wear prescription glasses. HR have not been helpful unfortunately. I am of the belief if staff have to wear safety glasses we should pay for prescription safety glasses if needed. I welcome your thoughts.

Hi clegg - unfortunate; no relation? AK is correct in his admirably concise response. Frank Hallett

Gosh ywo people have agreed with me... that's a first!

The above is quite correct, including the bit about single vision only to the best of my knowledge. Just a real life example of provision of prescription safety specs though... A previous employer of mine was in a bit of a predicament, they wanted me to have prescription safety eye wear, which was fine, single vision, which was fine, until I asked them which distance they wanted me to see at, far, middle or reading? They then came back with did I need them for all 3 distances and why. Well, when walking around premises with a blanket eye protection requirement, I need far vision specs. When working on machinery at say arms length, in such an environment I would need specs for that distance, and the same again for close vision. The next question was why did I need different prescriptions. So I sent them a prescription from my optician, and a letter explaining that my eyes do not accommodate (focus) for different distances, they are set focus at reading distance and I still need corrective lenses for reading. Why was the next question. 2 cataract operations with lens implants is the reason for the fixed focus. The correction requirement for reading is due to the surgery having distorted my eyeball. So, they decided that I should have varifocals, as my optician did not recommend over glasses. Just a point to illustrate that not everything is as cut and dried as it may seem. Generous employer, or practical, I would guess that one pair of varifocals would be less than 3 pairs of fixed, also,what would have been the scenario be in the event of an injury whilst changing glasses in a "hazardous" environment?...

The only thing I would add is to assess the ammount of time the person will be wearing eye protection. Per day/week/year. If the duration is short to medium term then overglasses might be the way forward. However, if the duration is significant then you have a duty to provide prescription glasses. Do an assessment, that way you can show that the decision was justified, one way or another. Mick

Also, prescription safety glasses do not cover for all types of impacts --only to a limit.