By May 15 employers must be in compliance with a new Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule requiring employers to pay for their employees' personal protective equipment. Under the new rule, employers are required to provide all OSHA-required personal protective equipment at no cost to full- and part-time workers. This rule applies to only OSHA-required personal protective equipment. Employers are not required to pay for items that are not being worn for protection from workplace hazards.

Other exceptions to the employer-pay requirement include steel-toe shoes or boots that are permitted to be worn off the job site; everyday clothing such as long-sleeve shirts, long pants and normal work boots; and ordinary clothes or skin creams used solely for protection from weather, such as winter coats, gloves or sunscreen.

Employers also are obligated under the new rule to pay for replacement personal protective equipment, except when the employee has lost or intentionally damaged the equipment.

The new rule also clarifies that employers can, and should, enforce discipline and work rules to ensure overall compliance with safety initiatives, so long as the discipline is uniform, reasonable and appropriate.

The new regulation does not alter in any way the standards for what personal protective equipment is required either through generally applicable requirements for all jobs or through more industry-specific rules. However, it may prompt union-represented employees to bargain more aggressively for additional employer-supported equipment. Employers should work quickly to develop and implement policies to comply with the new rule by the May 15 target date.

-- Chris Ramsey,
Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP,
cramsey@morganlewis.com

Buried in the revised Right to Know law signed recently by Gov. Edward Rendell is a provision that opens the records of some private companies to the public.

The new law, which goes into effect in January, assumes that most government records are public, whereas the previous law placed this burden of proof on the business or individual requesting the information. The new law thus serves to shift the burden of proving that a document should be public from the requestor of information to the state agency responsible for the record. The Office of Open Records is charged with hearing appeals when a request is denied.

As it turns out, many private companies perform government functions under contract to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Some of the things that private companies do for the state include running computer systems and Web sites, and building and repairing roads and bridges. The revised law says private entities that have contracts to perform a government function will be required to disclose their records.

No one knows yet how the courts and the Office of Open Records are going to interpret the revised law. But it is expected that private companies performing government functions will have to reveal only those records related to the work they are doing for the state.

-- Diana Leech,
Meyer Unkovic & Scott,
del@muslaw.com

This is the year of retirement plan communications for many companies, at least according to a new study by Hewitt Associates.

Hewitt, an international human resources consulting firm, found that two-thirds of all companies surveyed were likely to begin a new communications initiative to employees about the company's 401(k) retirement plan this year. Hewitt found that most of the communications would focus on fund usage, contribution levels and the importance of diversification.

An effective 401(k) employee communications plan has these elements:

• Helps employees understand the way the plan works.

• Includes all disclosure and reporting information required by law.

• Promotes the 401(k) plan to encourage participation.

• Provides investment education and information to participants.

Many studies show that the vast majority of 401(k) participants don't have adequate investment training and experience, and that consequently most participant accounts are underfunded. For that reason, the most effective 401(k) communications plans tend to include one-and-one meetings between employees and experienced financial planners who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.

-- Rick Pierchalksi,
BPU Investment Management,
rpierchalski@bpuinvestments.com