Who Pays for Protection?

For almost eight years, unions have been waiting for the Labor Department to finish writing rules that would make it clear that employers are supposed to pick up the tab for safety equipment for millions of workers.

Many companies already foot the bill for goggles, hard hats, ear plugs, mesh gloves, safety harnesses and other gear that they have been required to provide since 1994. But some industry sectors, including home building, poultry processing and construction, say a mandate requiring them to pay would be too open-ended.

Labor officials say the complicated nature of the issue, both legal and practical, has caused the delay. The unions claim the Bush administration has stalled because it is looking out for corporate interests.

So on Jan. 3, the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District to force the government to complete the long-postponed proposal.

"This is an uncomplicated rulemaking on a straightforward, but significant, issue of importance to worker safety and health," the suit says. It asks that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration be directed to complete the regulation within two months of a court order.

The personal protective equipment industry includes manufacturers such as 3M and DuPont. It has sales of about $10 billion annually, according to the International Safety Equipment Association in Arlington. The government estimates the rule would cost businesses about $62 million a year.

The dispute has a long history. After the initial protective equipment rule was issued in 1994, it said employers had to provide various pieces of safety gear. But unlike a series of health-related OSHA standards, it didn't say who should foot the bill, and not every company did.

Northrop Grumman's Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., for example, provides and pays for protective equipment for its 19,000 employees.

"We like consistency," said James Thornton, director of environmental health and safety for the shipyard, which builds and maintains aircraft carriers and submarines. "We prefer that we purchase them, provide them and train employees on the equipment."

The unions believe that lower-paid workers in industries such as poultry processing do not get the same deal.

There is a great deal of debate by some companies over such issues as what items are considered "tools of the trade" and are expected to be owned and paid for by employees, how replacement equipment is covered, what labor agreements might stipulate and whether the rule should cover temporary workers.

"It's the low-wage worker in forgotten industries" who is most affected, said Jacqueline Nowell, director of the occupational, safety and health office for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.