I am currently arranging face fit tests and hit a hurdle straight away.

In order to carryout the face fit test the person must be clean shaven. one of the operatives refuses to shave. Has anyone dealt with this problem and what is the way forward.

Unshaven employees should not wear tight-fitting facepieces.

LB

This happened to me last week. Bloke turns up for face fit testing with a beard;I told his manager that there is no way I could do a proper face fit test for someone with a beard. Even if I could get it to work, there would be no guarantee of consistency. It has to be clean shaven. So he had two choices, find the guy some other work or invest in a positive pressure face hood.

This caused a bit of debate before for me, and the answer isn't black & white. It centres much round H&S law over-riding other laws such as equality/ discrimination, but then, you'd have to be discriminating against a protected characteristic etc. This topic will go well off track if you don't focus on why the person wouldn't shave (culture, both H&S and ethnicity) it is the employer's duty to manage the men (safely), if it's not reasonably practicable, or equally unsafe to provide alternate systems (such as the air fed mentioned), keep the man on something other than the task requiring the close-fit RPE.

If that isn't RP either, and you can demonstrate you've tried everything reasonable to keep the man in a job, let him go. There's precedent cases showing employers stating their intention is to keep people safe, trumps employment rights etc.

You'll spend more time looking for the answer than implementing it, fact.

State the fact that clean shaven is a prerequisite of the job on all recruiting literature. I do this for such things as Lone Working, possible confined space work and possible short working at height off ladders / step ladders.

This is not against the law.

Educating the worker as to why it is necessary to be clean shaven for the RPE to seal properly and the consequences of leakage (i.e. breathing in the contaminated air and subsequent medical consequences)may solve some problems.

As a contract safety advisor i pointed this out to my client. I then challenged one of the lads who was wearing a good mask. He told me he never shaves etc and then started to be awkward as they sometimes do. I pointed out that the seal is more reliable when shaved and so on. When i reported this bacl to my client the answers i got was, Well at least you told him.

I don't know how to answer this question other than tongue in cheek (which I presume the question was meant to be - trying to be funny and it's not Friday?).

Rich

The employee does not need to be clean shaven.
Do the test and watch his eyes water.
If the mask doesnt fit, he will fail the test.
Simple