From the Ground Up – Safety Footwear Counts

The correct choice of footwear is absolutely essential in some industry sectors, particularly when workers are faced with conditions such as freezing temperatures and damp environments.

The potential hazards to waste and recycling workers’ feet, for example, are numerous – slips, trips and falls, heavy and sharp objects, and prolonged exposure to damp conditions and sources of bacterial infection.

A recent survey found that more than 50% of outdoor workers were unhappy with their work boots, with 65% stating that they suffered from cold and damp feet during the winter months. Even more worryingly almost 75% of those surveyed stated that they purchased their own boots and, more shocking still, some 60% of those workers purchased boots from conventional high street stores.

If you are reading this article the likelihood is that you are currently purchasing safety footwear and workwear from specialist workwear manufacturers, which is a very good start, but at Rokwear we don’t want to overlook the potential cause for concern here. Employers that are found to be responsible for incidents that involve injury to employees could now face fines of more than £10 million.

As an employer, ensuring excellent quality footwear for your staff is your responsibility, and increasing employee awareness of what is required to be safe on site is your responsibility too.

At Rokwear we can help. We focus on educating and advising people on the potential dangers of inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and we commit to innovation and development of the very best safety footwear solutions on an ongoing basis.

Our products may not be the cheapest on the market, but there is no doubt that by only focusing on the price of safety footwear, procurement officers run the risk of overlooking features that are critical to the safety of their staff in the field. Protective elements such as safety toecaps, water-resistant fabrics and oil-resistant midsoles may make footwear slightly more expensive, but they all help to keep feet warm, dry and therefore healthy during the working day – making workplace safety a priority above all else.

For more information on the importance of safety footwear in your workplace, please contact Rokwear on uksales@rokwear.com