It is your employer’s legal responsibility to keep you safe in the workplace. This includes providing you with the appropriate personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as PPE, to allow you to perform your job safely.

Personal protective equipment is that which is worn by workers to protect their health and safety, whilst performing work related tasks. PPE is required to be worn when the risks to staff cannot be mitigated in any other way.

Employees in all types of different industries are required to wear PPE, common examples of PPE include:

• Safety helmets
• Safety glasses
• Safety boots
• High visibility clothing
• Overalls
• Gloves
• Ear defenders
• Masks and respiratory equipment

Failure to provide staff with PPE can have devastating consequences, examples of injuries and illnesses caused due to lack of PPE include:

• Burns and lacerations
• Fractures
• Amputations
• Sight damage
• Hearing loss
• Serious head and brain damage

In the worst instances PPE accidents can lead to fatalities. For example if an employee experiences a fall from height due to being provided with a faulty harness, this could lead to catastrophic injuries or death.

Your employer must conduct regular risk assessments of working environments and practices, in order to determine what PPE is needed to keep you safe in the workplace. Employers must provide staff with PPE free of charge and should regularly inspect and replace damaged PPE. They should make sure that staff always wear PPE when required and conduct training with staff to ensure that they know how to use it correctly.