Posted By warderic I would like to open a discussion on the following please. Those of you who have spent many years in the H&S profession will be familiar with the awkward employee. I am particularly interested in your approach to those employees who want more then their share of personal protective equipment. As an example: Employees are issued with one pair of safety footwear each year, but there is always one particular employee, for what every reason, who has an excuse to have two pairs. Time after time they approach their manager saying 'these boots are rubbing on my toes' or 'these boots have become too tight and I cant wear them' etc. You know that they need to wear safety boots, but how do you stop, what you believe to be, just an excuse to have a new pair of boots. I have dealt with this situation many times over the years in various ways , but I would be interested to know how you deal with such situations. Many thanks.

Posted By Paul D I kick em in the sweets...... ...no mods only joking.... The key for me is ownership of issues, I would put my arm round the awkward guy and butter him up a bit.. then ask him how he would do things better. For instance when I go in to do a risk assessment, I go straight to the worker on the 'shop floor' before management and make that person feel like he is the most important person within the process (Which he is by the way). I then make it known to that person that they have carried out the risk assessment and it is their work, the results are that they are more likely to comply with the findings and more importantly get their peers on side and still comply when there are no managers around.

Posted By Raymond Rapp Well, in the past I can think I might have been one of those awkward ones...anyway, I tend to adopt the view that not everyone is the same. In a workforce of many, sometimes it might just be easier to accept the odd 'awkward' one and just get on with the job. Crack on.

Posted By John J I'm with Ians aproach. Get him to seek medical advice but send along a note to his doctor outlining his issues. He may, without realising it, have a medical problem. This should be in his own time or you may as well save money and buy the shoes in the first place.

Posted By John J The problem with accepting the odd 'awkward one' is that you set a precedent that becomes the norm. Fine in a small workforce but time consuming, and costly, in a large one

Posted By Jean My experience has been with DSE specs. I had an employee who advised me that his eye test needed to be rechecked after only about 4 months. When I directed him to the policy of every 2 years or as recommended by his optician. He told me that if I didn't pay for a further eye test, and make a contribution towards his new glasses, he wouldn't work. So I consulted our HR advisor, and we agreed that he should go back to have his eyes checked with the same optician, we would pay again if there were changes, and the optician stated that there was a need for a change in prescription. We paid for the eye test, however, as he was not recommended a change in prescription, we advised him to visit his GP. Never heard from him again. We changed our policy to reflect that additional eye tests may be undertaken as part of the company policy subject to the discretion of the Health and Safety Advisor. Employees may be awkward but it doesn't nec. make them dishonest.

Posted By John J Ray, I'm all for flexibility and encourage a wide range of choice. The problem arises when somebody goes along and speaks to a salesman who tells them their product is the best thing since sliced bread, which it may be, but is entirely unneccessary for the task in hand. A good example is designer label boots which must be more comfortable as they have a label on. I've known people develop foot problems within hours of speaking to the salesman. If you set a precedent that you will supply anything on request and based on this example alone I would be adding a conservative 10K onto our PPE budget. I'd sooner challenge all requests and use the 10k on other things rather than fashion items or nice to haves. John John

Posted By justgossip for the employee who is having a 'crack' just because its clever. I just inform them to clear off. its quick, its cheap and it teaches them a lesson. plus there is more than one way to skin a cat. one of mine tried it, he had size 8 feet and we gave him a tried and trusted size 8 boot. Sent him home whilst I ' investigated' the issue as I did not want to make his 'injury' worse . that cost him his overtime. we then had a chat the following day and both agreed that in future we would work to gether constructively RESPECT garry garry

Posted By John Richards He/she may even need more than one pair. He/she may have to work indoors most of the time, but occasionally go onto site...or maybe even onto sites with chemicals around...paint shops etc.. He/she/it may get through several pairs of boots in a year, especially if required to work on construction sites with all that messy mud and slush...etc. But then, he/she/it may well just want someone to talk to...or maybe he/she/it fancies you ?

Posted By John J Rhea, I don't think anybodys suggesting that failure to issue PPE is acceptable. Its clearly not. John

Posted By Raymond Rapp Warderic, clearly you got some responses that were not too agreeable with you, but if you post a thread you takes your chances on the quality of the responses...that's how it is.