Colorado bars employers from charging workers for protective safety gear

The law is careful about what PPE actually means, and that precision is where compliance lives. It covers equipment, clothing, respiratory devices, protective shields, and protective barriers an employer provides to guard against recognized hazards. Then it draws the lines. Everyday clothing is out: long-sleeved shirts, long pants, street shoes, normal work boots. Weather gear is out too, including winter coats, gloves, rubber boots, raincoats, hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen. Non-specialty safety-toe shoes and non-specialty prescription safety eyewear are excluded when employees are allowed to wear them off the job site. Logging boots and metatarsal protection added at an employee’s request also fall outside the definition.

The third change is smaller in scope. The law tells large employers they cannot unreasonably deny a worker the use of a restroom. It reaches employers with 500 or more employees in the state, and it focuses on people who slaughter livestock or render and package meat. Those workers cannot be unreasonably denied restroom use during paid, compensable time. The division can fine an employer $100 per employee for each violation, up to $200 per employee per week.

So, what should HR do with this? Three things. First, find any arrangement that shifts PPE costs onto staff and end it for covered gear. Second, pull existing written deduction agreements and test them against the new exclusion, because a signature no longer saves a PPE deduction. Third, if your company runs large meat operations in Colorado, write restroom access into your compensable-time policy before a complaint does it for you.

The throughline is cost and control. Colorado has decided that the price of safety gear, and access to a restroom during paid time, sit on the employer’s side of the ledger. The law applies to conduct on or after its effective date, so the time to adjust policy is now, not after the first fine.