Posted By Steve Ireland I recently discovered that one of our agency's are charging their employees for replacement PPE. I was wondering how they avoid the stipulation within the regs that PPE should be provided free of charge. The only way that i can see this is if they are of the view that they are providing ppe under sec 3 of HSWA rather than sec 9 and see their staff as self employed rather than direct employees.

Posted By Heather Aston Steve I would suggest that if this really is PPE as opposed to uniform and it is not, for example safety shoes provided on a cost basis but not required by the job, then the Agency is breaking the law. Can you give us an example of the type of PPE that is being charged for? Heather

Posted By Heather Aston Steve If they deal with his tax and NI then he's their employee not yours. I don't see how they can argue that he's self-employed. However I can sympathise with them not wanting to shell out for shoes especially as the same worker might be on the books of several agencies - why should one have to pay for the shoes? For example RIDDOR reporting responsibility rests with them not with you (I have HSE's advice on this) although you should notify the agency of any accident. You obviously still have responsibilities for agency workers on your site (as I am sure you are aware). We would certainly provide most PPE - hearing protection, respiratory protection, gloves, etc to agency staff on the same basis as we would to employees. Safety shoes is an interesting one. If they have to be worn as part of the job, the employee cannot be made to pay for them. We have a company subsidy scheme for shoes which allows our employees to take advantage of the very favourable rates we get for purchasing safety shoes and we chip in a set amount of the cost. However, in areas where we REQUIRE the employee to wear shoes we pick up the entire cost. We also pick up the cost of replacement although we would ask questios if an employee was havig a new pair too often. We have a safety shoe area where agency workers are employed on a regular basis. We have made it a condition of our contract with the agency that they make sure the workers they supply for that area come with safety shoes. We have sent one home who forgot his shoes one day. In most cases we find that the agency workers have their own safety shoes anyway, but I don't know who pays for them if they don't. Certainly not us. Heather

Posted By robert daily you're pipe and slippers ma'am.