Twenty years on, UK gives PPE Directive rights to gig workers

摘要

New Regulations will come into force on 6 April that require employers to provide limb (b) workers with the same health and safety protections in respect of personal protective equipment (PPE) as they do for their employees. The changes were necessitated by a High Court judgment in 2020 that the UK's restriction of the PPE at Work Regulations 1992 to employees meant that the UK had failed to implement in full Directive 89/656/EC on the minimum health and safety requirements for the use by workers of PPE at the workplace. The requirements of the Regulations, however, remain unchanged. Limb (b) workers are not employees. They work on a casual or irregular basis for one or more organisations, receiving holiday pay but few other employment rights. The HSE advises that, in general, they: only work if they choose to; have a contract or other arrangement to work or provide services personally for a reward; have only a limited right to send someone else to do the work; and are not in business for themselves.