No one disputes that Personal Protective Equipment (“PPE”) saves lives and protects workers from catastrophic physical injuries in on-the-job accidents. From helmets to gloves, steel-toed boots to harnesses and belts, PPE is extremely important for worker protection on a variety of industrial worksites. To learn more about the variety of PPE available in the industries of Indiana and Illinois, read Personal Protective Equipment and Serious Industrial Accidents.
PPE is a vital component for safety, especially in high-risk workplaces like Gary’s steel mills, Chicago’s docks, and the warehousing, manufacturing, construction, and trucking industries in Indiana and Illinois. Nevertheless, too many workers are being hurt or killed in preventable industrial accidents.
Consider this: according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), one of the ten most frequently cited workplace safety standards in 2022 involved the failure to comply with 29 CFR §1926.102, which requires employers insure that employees use “Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection.“
PPE: Workers are the Problem?
This month, a new study regarding Personal Protective Equipment was released by J. J. Keller, a company that describes itself as “…the trusted source for DOT / Transportation, OSHA / Workplace Safety, Human Resources, Construction Safety and Hazmat / Hazardous Materials regulation compliance products and services.”
Key here: the industry perspective of this new study is that “…the main reasons employees don’t wear PPE are that they don’t want to, they think it’s unnecessary and it makes work harder.”
For more, read the analysis of this new PPE manufacturer’s study published by 1105 Media’s Occupational Safety and Health Magazine, entitled “New Study Shows Many Struggle ‘Often’ to Get Employees to Use PPE,” on October 21, 2022 and written by Alex Saurman.
This study queried individuals in a variety of industries, such as construction, manufacturing, and transportation. Responses came from employer and employees. According to the responses, a great majority of employers (83%) have trouble getting workers to comply with PPE procedures on the job.
What’s the problem? Apparently, workers don’t like to wear PPE; many think the stuff makes doing their job more difficult – or that the PPE just isn’t needed. Almost a quarter of the respondents didn’t know they needed PPE.
Meanwhile, the PPE manufacturing marketplace is simply booming. Focusing on safety is boosting profits for these companies with projected global revenues of $64.5 Billion within the next five years (by 2027). Read, “Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, and Challenges in Personal Protective Equipment Market,” published on October 26, 2022 by Chicago’s Markets and Markets.
The Need for Construction Worker PPE and the Duty of Care
For advocates of worker victims injured or killed in a work accident, it comes as no surprise that fingers are being pointed at the worker for PPE failures as opposed to those with legally imposed duties of safety and care at the workplace. Sadly, many workers must face insulting and disheartening challenges to their claims for justice.
Defendant companies and their insurance carriers routinely argue it was the worker’s fault – not the employer – that he or she suffered severe bodily injuries on the job in order to try and avoid legal liability.
Employer’s Safety Duties Includes The Worker’s PPE
Meanwhile, the law does not view Personal Protective Equipment as a fashion trend where the workers can decide their style and whether or not they should wear a helmet or don a safety harness. The legal duty is clearly placed upon employers to keep worksites safe, and this duty of care includes a responsibility for each worker’s PPE.
First of all, all workers should be instructed and trained on the specific PPE that they should use on the job. That is the employer’s responsibility.
Likewise, it is the duty of the worker’s immediate employer as well as others in possession, custody, or control of aspects of the workplace to make sure the proper PPE is provided, available, and being used on site. This includes knowing the latest advances in PPE as it applies to their particular industry and workplace.
Furthermore, there is a legal duty to monitor all the PPE being used on the site. If something needs repair, replacement, or maintenance, then it is the employer’s job to make that happen.
As the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) explains:
Hazards exist in every workplace in many different forms: sharp edges, falling objects, flying sparks, chemicals, noise and a myriad of other potentially dangerous situations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that employers protect their employees from workplace hazards that can cause injury.
Controlling a hazard at its source is the best way to protect employees. Depending on the hazard or workplace conditions, OSHA recommends the use of engineering or work practice controls to manage or eliminate hazards to the greatest extent possible. For example, building a barrier between the hazard and the employees is an engineering control; changing the way in which employees perform their work is a work practice control.
When engineering, work practice and administrative controls are not feasible or do not provide sufficient protection, employers must provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to their employees and ensure its use. Personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as “PPE”, is equipment worn to minimize exposure to a variety of hazards.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Accidents: Justice for Workers Injured on the Job
When a worker is seriously or fatally injured because of a PPE failure, then the state laws of Indiana and Illinois will provide that worker and their loved ones with avenues for justice in the aftermath of the accident. PPE failures can result in all sorts of injuries, such as:
- Electrocution caused by exposure to live wires or current
- Burns caused by hazardous chemicals
- Internal injuries resulting from caught-in-between incidents
- Spinal cord injuries caused by struck-by accidents
- Traumatic brain injuries resulting from a fall
- Loss of limbs in machinery failures, such as conveyor belt accidents.
Employers have the legal duty to understand these hazards. Employers have the responsibility to protect their workers who are there, on the site, to make that company a profit.
The employer has a clear legal responsibility to understand the correct PPE needed for each employee; to provide it; to make sure all PPE on the site is in proper repair; and that the PPE is being used appropriately on the site. As an example, the above-referenced Top Ten most-often cited safety regulation is clear (emphasis added):
(1) The employer shall ensure that each affected employee uses appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to eye or face hazards from flying particles, molten metal, liquid chemicals, acids or caustic liquids, chemical gases or vapors, or potentially injurious light radiation.
For more, read our earlier discussions in:
- Premises Liability and Workplace Accidents: Third Party Injury Claims
- Multiple Employers on the Construction Site: Who Is Liable For Construction Worker Accidents?
- Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims for On-the-Job Accidents.
Claims may be based upon the state workers’ compensation system as well as possible legal actions against third parties who may have legal liability for the incident.
When a worker is injured or killed on the job in Indiana or Illinois without proper PPE, our laws of negligence, product liability, wrongful death, and workers’ compensation may provide avenues for justice to the worker victim and their loved ones. Please be careful out there!
