First, check the employee handbook – Section: Benefits – and you’ll see the usual suspects: Safety Shoes refunds every 24 months; Prescription safety glasses refunds also every 24 months.
Then, look at the safety shoes and glasses people actually wear. Duct tape, anyone?
If people are required to use unsafe foot protection, or can’t see because of scratched plastic lenses until they qualify for their refund, what are the risks the company is exposing itself to? Besides the moral responsibility for a possible injury, and besides the Ministry of Labour fines, such a company is risking its employees’ respect and its bottom line! Broken shoes are uncomfortable, a daily distraction on the job – and a constant reminder why working at this job isn’t so great. And if you’re expecting any quality work from people who are forced to wear scratched lenses, forget it.
We’re doing things differently at Little Lakes: if PPE needs to be replaced, it gets replaced. Period. It only makes sense.