Employers have a duty to their employees to take reasonable steps to ensure that:
- Appropriate Personal Protective Equipment ‘PPE’ is provided;
- PPE provided is properly used; and
- PPE supplied is suitable for each individual employee.
If an incident at work occurred after 1st October 2013, although there is no statutory entitlement to pursue a claim in relation to a breach of health and safety regulations, a breach of these regulations is evidence of negligence.
Furthermore, employers have a common law duty to, so far as reasonably practical, take care of their employee’s health and safety. Reasonable care includes providing a safe system of work and adequate plant and equipment. Although what is deemed to be “reasonably practical” will be dependent on individual circumstances, if a profession involves any element of manual work, then clearly a higher level of protection will be required.