Canada

Many workplaces provide essential safety gear like cheap ear plugs, safety glasses and reflective work wear, some even provide a yearly boot payout. A lot of these jobs do tend to be government or bigger industrial gigs.

If you require specific safety gear, you should ask your employer if they are willing to supply it.

Other than boots, I've never worked anywhere that didn't provide PPE. Some of the jankier places had to be forced to provide it by citing regulations. Some of the better places also had boot allowances. Most places, the gloves were fit for purpose, but not what I would buy if spending my own money.

The basic principle is that an employee cannot be asked to perform dangerous or unhealthy activities without training and equipment. Not every jurisdiction is the same. YMMV.

1. How much of a pathetic bootlicker for capitalism do you have to be to say something like this, rather than "If it's required for your job it should be paid for by your job", regardless of what sector someone works in?

2. No matter what, she cannot go out and buy a rucksack in CADPAT because outside of military contractors such a thing does not exist. Her options for hearing protection are limited because whatever she wears has to work with her standard issue kit, which she is required to use. The reason military procurement is a thing is because all of this stuff has to work together in very specific ways.