How to get workers to wear ppe

• Develop and distribute the regulations on wearing personal protective equipments in the production process to all workers.
• Develop and distribute guidelines on using personal protective equipment to all workers.
• Guide to make sure they understand how to use their PPE in a proper way. Let some of them practices to ensure they are able to do that and make any comments or corrections.
• Post messages reminding workers to wear personal protective equipments around the factory to continually remind workers to be aware of safety issues.
• Use pictures and diagrams to illustrate to workers the correct and unsafe ways of using personal protective equipment in their work
• Place a safety reminder board with large symbols and letters at the entrance gate and inside the factory where it is easy for workers to read.
• Brainstorm creative ideas to encourage workers to ensure safety in production and wear PPEs.
• Have open discussion with workers on why they do not want to wear the personal protective equipment. Find the reasons, such as PPE is not people-friendly, PPE is too heavy, Try to remove these reasons by encouragement, order customized protective equipment or find ways to improve the PPEs so that they fit well with the workers and more convenient to use.
• Conduct a need assessment to identify the any trends of workers related to PPEs such as height, size of body, habits of using PPEs. Such information, in combination with information from discussion with workers, can be used as input for ordering better PPEs from providers.
• More people –friendly or fashioned PPEs can be a good way to encourage workers to wear PPEs. Another ways should be making the PPEs softer and lighter. In some special cases, such as electronic welding, a mask which can free the hand of workers seem to be preferred than the one which they have to hold by one hand.
• Use creative slogans, such as the one reminding workers about their family, to encourage workers to wear PPEs for their own health and safety.
• Ensure every worker has sufficient and appropriate personal protective equipments, according to their working positions. To do so, an assessment of the need of personal protective equipments of all the workers in the factory is essentials.
• Regularly replace the personal protective equipment at no cost for workers. Do not save cost by purchasing low quality PPEs. Low quality, dirty, old, torn or broken PPEs normally make workers more reluctant to wear them in production. In addition, old and dirty protective equipments may create trouble for workers’ house.
• Provide workers personal storage to keep their personal protective equipment such as hat, gloves or shoes.
• Supervisors should ensure all workers are wearing all their standard protective equipment before starting every shift: hard hat, shoes, masks and protective clothes. In some special work such as electric wielding, wearing protective gloves and masks is a must.
• Offer training courses for workers on the importance wearing PPEs and how to use PPEs at their work. Discussion about historical cases of workplace accidents due to not wearing PPEs is a good way to encourage them to wear PPEs.
• Offer timely encouragement and/or rewards for individuals or groups who conform with the regulations on wearing PPEs

Funding for the Factory Improvement Programme is provided by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the United States Department of Labor.