Our company routinely allows staff to buy their own safety footwear and we refund their costs up to 25 pounds. We always check that they are suitable and some opt to let us buy the footwear on their behalf.

The system works well but I am now concerned that the PPE regs do not allow refunds to be capped in this way. The wording however is unclear.

Can anyone help me resolve this? Do we need to change our policy?

Advice and guidance will be appreciated..

David Manson

PPE regs say nothing about refund systems.  Provided your workers are able to purchase suitable PPE under the cap you set, there is nothing wrong with setting a cap.  If they are paying more just to get nicer PPE, that is not in itself a problem.  If they need to pay more to get PPE that fits or is wearable or is to the required specificatipn, then that would be a problem.  Sometimes for example PPE in unusual sizes can be more expensive.

One thing to ensure is the "cap" is regularly reviewed - £25 seems a bit low for a properly certified piece of kit - if it has been in place for a couple of years it is unlikley to have followed the market trend pushing people in to cheaper less comfortable footwear OR placing you at risk through having to make up a widening difference between allowance and market reality. You can always bench mark low/medium and high prices on PPE providers web sites (avoid the on-line market places - "cheap for a reason")

This is how we do this (although we pay £30). We do offer a huge range in house as well.

One note of caution. I am getting an influx of "safety shoes" being purchased after social media adverts. Whilst they may adhere to the guidelines, there is no paperwork to show this, no EC labelling (Or UKCA, if that has even happened yet) and no data sheet. We are having to refuse to allow them to wear them, which is causing enough disagreement that it my sto pus allowing them to source their own in future.

Another side note, when a person has a medical issue or other valid reason to require more expensive footwear, we have no upper boundary. they are sent to a supplier down the road and have free rein to pick whatever is suitable.

The Captain has a good point regarding sourcing - pre-internet it was a trip to the local Army & Navy Stores or similar where the owners of a bricks & mortar establishment would take their duty of customer care seriously, after all the customer knew where to find them in the event of complaint.

Fast forward and the internet is awash with cheap products being sold on-line, this tsunami of direct to consumer trade tends to by-pass existing product controls allowing anonymous traders to ignore customer care and very often the obligatory standards around materials and testing (CE/UKCA etc.)

It was bad enough when there was a degree of traceability through the major on-line markets/auction sites, this new trend for bedroom operations trading via Social Media leaves potential claimants wholly exposed, and in the event of complaint likely to be blocked.

If you purchase goods that should be CE/UKCA marked and they arrive in GB from anywhere beyond the shores of England, Scotland or Wales you are technically designated the manufacturer and have all the duties and obligations to ensure product compliance - you need to check where that social media / web site is actually shipping from.

We, supply all our employees with, polo shirts, trousers, pullovers, sweatshirts, jackets in a variety of forms including hi vis and a whole range of other stuff, including at one point socks.  All of this has the company logo embroidered on it and is changed when required. The MD hates to see scruffy people so we try to have a well dressed and smart workforce.  On the issue of PPE we supply all the required items from gloves through to hearing protection and hard hats, as part of that package we supply on demand safety footwear.  Some of our employees (mobile engineers and drivers) will go through a pair of boots in around six months, but they just ask and we supply a replacement pair. 

The issue we have is not abuse of the system by actually getting them to ask, I will often say to a driver, time for new boots, jacket or shirts, hearing protection, wellingtons etc and invariably the response is oh, they will last another few weeks, I don't want to spend the company's money. 

I guess this attitude is much the same as the old chocolate factory one where you can eat all the chocolate you want. Which leads to low consumption.  

I am thinking that it may be better to be generous with PPE and you may just get a smaller spend as people will not want it so much!! It works for us!!

Edited by user 17 June 2021 07:38:00(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified