I agree with you Guru that the employer has to do everything reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of the workforce so this initiative must be followed through to find a satisfactory conclusion. I have a very similar problem but have not yet been able to identify a suitable specialist company to help out. I wonder why the individuals are reluctant to join you in this idea. In my case there was original scepticism that a suitable product would be available that was comfortable enough to wear but when we have made it clear that the company will pay whatever it takes to find a solution they have come on board. Perhaps your workers have some concerns that they are not sharing - understandable if there is underlying medical matters. Keep working on it and good luck Martin

Is this a work area in which your risk assessment has identified the need for the compulsory wearing of safety footwear? If so then your disclaimer is worthless (they nearly always are) and you should not allow these employees to continue to work in the area without safety shoes. Ultimately "refusal to co-operate" means they are not complying with their legal duties as you have pointed out. Difficult situation. I came across a similar one and ultimately the employee was moved into an area that did not require safety footwear to be worn. He was not happy but that was the only realistic outcome.

Is it possible that we make a risk assessments for working without safety shoes? If we can bring the risk level into an acceptable limit? Is is OK? PPE is last in the hierachy of control measures..hope it will work. Jesu

Thanks for everyones help so far...I find it odd that the person in question point blank refuses to even try wearing special safety footwear, claiming a letter for their GP saying they cant wear them should allow her to be exempt. It may very well go down the HR route if they continue to refuse to cooperate with the company in trying to provide the appropriate PPE. Unfortunately, we cannot move the person to another area as the whole manufacturing area is a MFP zone, for good reasons. I found the link provided by m regarding the dismissal a very interesting read, and certainly see parallels with our situation. If anyone else has had experiences with a similar situation, please share how you managed to tackle it. Thank You

Hi, Possible reasons people don’t wear PPE: uncomfortable, not available, not issued on a personal basis, macho attitude, difficult to use, presents other risks, slows the job down, no one else wears it, managers don’t require it, managers turn a blind eye, no consequence for not wearing it, too costly, no choice of size or type, lack of training / knowledge / awareness, don’t know required to, always done work without it, don’t use it at home, poor safety culture and now medical reasons. I’ve always found that if employees are allowed to choose their safety footwear then there are no problems, perhaps I’ve been lucky. Would protective footwear be adequate instead of safety footwear if that comes out of your risk assessment, the former I believe are less cumbersome more comfortable, but of course offer a lower degree of protection 100 joule instead of 200 Joule. An IOSH posting from a few years ago stated that Bolton Bros specialise in this area and supply made-to-measure Orthopaedic safety footwear for industrial purposes. Manufactured to British Standard EN 345-1:1993 with European CE marking control, employees can now be measured and fitted with specially designed steel-capped safety footwear that meets with their own medical requirements and statutory Health and Safety requirements. Tel: 0191 2732012 www.bolton-bros.co.uk. Not sure if they are still operating but easy to check. Regards Steve