OSHA to Require Employers to Pay for Personal Protective Equipment  

In response to a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), OSHA has agreed to issue a final rule on employer payment for personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees. In 1999, OSHA first proposed a PPE rule that would require employers to pay the costs of protective clothing, lifelines, face shields, gloves and other equipment used by an estimated 20 million workers to protect them from job hazards.  

On January 3, 2007, the AFL-CIO and UFCW filed a lawsuit against the Bush Administration over its failure to finalize the payment for PPE rule. The court ordered the Bush Administration to respond to the lawsuit by March 19. On March 14, the Secretary of Labor filed papers with the court committing to issue a final rule in November 2007.  

The rule was first announced in 1997 and proposed in 1999 by OSHA after a ruling by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission that OSHA’s existing PPE standard could not be interpreted to require employers to pay for protective equipment. The rule proposed in 1999 did not impose any new obligations on employers to provide safety equipment; it simply codified OSHA’s policy that employers, not employees, have the responsibility to pay for it.  

In 1999, OSHA promised to issue the final PPE rule in July 2000. But it missed that deadline.