March 19, 2009

Mr. William J. Banaszak
QSM, Inc.
3134 N. 74^th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53216

Dear Mr. Banaszak:

Thank you for your November 23, 2007, letter to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Directorate of Enforcement Programs (DEP). Your letter has been referred to DEP's Office of General Industry Enforcement (GIE) for an answer to your questions regarding OSHA's Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) standard, 29 CFR 1910.132. This constitutes OSHA's interpretation only of the requirements discussed and may not be applicable to any question not delineated within your original correspondence.

Your scenario and questions are restated below for clarity.

Scenario: An employer requires ordinary safety-toe footwear throughout their facilities and pays for the first $100 of the footwear cost. As part of a recent company-wide static electricity control program, employees working with flammable liquids and products are now required to have static dissipative safety-toe footwear.

Question 1: Would the static dissipative safety-toe footwear be considered specialty footwear? Is the employer required to provide the static dissipative safety-toe footwear at no cost to its employees?

Reply: Static dissipative safety-toe footwear that meets the specifications and test methods for static dissipative (SD) footwear in ANSI 241-1991, "American National Standard for Personal Protection – Protective Footwear," would be considered specialty footwear. This footwear provides additional protection to the employee beyond that of an ordinary safety-toe shoe and is designed for special use on the job. Therefore, the employer would be required to provide this footwear at no cost to employees.

The PPE standard provides that "[t]he employer is not required to pay for non-specialty safety-toe protective footwear (including steel-toe shoes or steel-toe boots) ... provided that the employer permits such items to be worn off the job-site." 29 CFR 1910.132(h)(2). As OSHA explained in the Final Rule for Employer Payment for PPE, "exempted footwear provides the protection of an ordinary safety-toe shoe or boot, while footwear with additional safety attributes beyond this (e.g., shoes and boots with special soles) fall under the employer payment requirement." The Agency also said that, "[t]he term 'non-specialty' is used to indicate that the footwear ... being exempted is not of a type designed for special use on the job (e.g. rubber steel-toe shoes)." 72 Federal Register 64342, 64348 (Nov. 15, 2007).

Question 2: If the employer allows its employees to wear the static dissipative safety-toe footwear off-site (for personal use), would the employer be exempt from full payment for this footwear?

Reply: No. Since this specialty footwear is required for the job, the employer is required to provide it at no cost to the employee. This is still the case if the employer allows employees to use the footwear off the job.

Thank you for your interest in occupational safety and health. We hope you find this information helpful. Please be aware that OSHA's enforcement guidance is subject to periodic review and clarification, amplification, or correction. Such guidance could also be affected by subsequent rulemaking. In the future, should you wish to verify that the guidance provided herein remains current, you may consult OSHA's website at http://www.osha.gov. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the Office of General Industry Enforcement at (202) 693-1850.

Sincerely,

Richard E. Fairfax, Director
Directorate of Enforcement Programs