Work gloves, by what they protect against.

They are the EN 388 mechanical performance marks, printed under the hammer pictogram, and they read in a fixed order: abrasion (1-4), cut resistance on the circular blade test (1-5), tear (1-4), puncture (1-4), then since the 2016 revision a letter A to F for the TDM straight-blade cut test, and sometimes a P for impact protection. Higher is more resistant in each position. The letter is the one to quote when cut is the real hazard.

Match it to the edge, not to the job title. Level A or B suits general handling and light assembly. C is the usual choice for handling sheet metal, glass or blades casually. D, E and F are for sustained contact with sharp edges — glazing, metal fabrication, meat processing. Going higher than the hazard needs is not safer in practice, because a stiff glove gets taken off.

EN 388 covers mechanical risks — abrasion, cut, tear, puncture, impact. EN ISO 374 covers chemical and micro-organism risk, and it is specific: the glove is tested against named chemicals, each with a code letter and a measured breakthrough time, so the mark means "resists these, for this long" rather than "chemical proof". A glove can hold both standards, and many do. Neither one says anything about heat or cold.

They are not banned, but a lot of principal contractors now exclude them from their sites, because a loose leather rigger offers almost no cut protection and comes off in a snag. If you are supplying a team that works on managed sites, check the site rules before you order a box of riggers — a coated cut-level glove is usually what the induction asks for.

Glove sizes run numerically, roughly 7 small, 8 medium, 9 large, 10 extra large, 11 double extra large, measured as the circumference of the hand round the knuckles in inches. For a mixed team, 9 and 10 cover most of the order, with a few 8s and 11s. Send us a count by size if you have it and we will quote exactly that rather than a guessed split.

Yes, where the gloves are PPE. An employer cannot charge a worker for anything provided to meet a health and safety duty — that is section 9 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 — and since the PPE at Work amendment took effect in April 2022 that duty covers casual and agency workers as well as employees. Gloves issued purely for comfort or cleanliness are not PPE and fall outside that.

When the protection has gone, not on a calendar. A coated grip glove is finished when the coating wears through at the fingertips, a cut glove when the liner is nicked or thinned, a chemical glove as soon as it is contaminated inside or has passed its breakthrough time in use. Buying cheap gloves in volume and binning them early works out safer and often cheaper than making an expensive pair last.

Some can, most are not worth it. The coated working surface cannot take print, so branding goes on the cuff, where it is small and wears off fast. If the point is stock control rather than marketing, a colour-coded glove by department is cheaper and works better than a printed cuff.