What are ISO 20345, 20247 and SRC standards for safety footwear?

Meeting increasingly demanding safety standards in the workplace

In France, there is an organization dedicated to research and safety that works to prevent workplace accidents and occupational illnesses. This is the INRS: National Institute for Research and Safety, a non-profit organization under the 1901 law, which operates under the auspices of the Social Security system.

Thus, this institute offers workplace safety through:

• Collective protective equipment (CPE) ensures maximum safety for all personnel working in the same location, in accordance with current safety standards. This applies to both industrial settings and workshops for tradespeople. Visit this link for more details.
• And regarding PPE (personal protective equipment), see this website for more information. Protecting workers and tradespeople also involves their work clothes and footwear: it is essential to guarantee everyone personal protective equipment (PPE) perfectly suited to their work environment.

Workplace safety: the same requirements for everyone

Safety shoes, whether for women or men, must meet very specific criteria. For workwear as well as footwear used in industry (or any other hazardous work environment), there are no different requirements for men and women. Women's safety shoes and their male counterparts have the same designation. Even if the design for women may be more refined, the technical requirements are identical.

Workwear, and more specifically safety footwear and its standards

It's important to distinguish between work shoes for professional use and safety shoes. Work shoes conform to standard EN 20347. Because they lack reinforced toecaps, they cannot be worn in work environments where there are risks such as impacts or crushing injuries to the feet. For such environments, there is standard EN 20345, which has multiple criteria and a much more demanding classification for workplace safety.

The 20347 standard

Even though shoes conforming to standard 20347 are not intended for use in hazardous environments, they are still considered work-related equipment. They are suitable, for example, for staff working in operating rooms or, more broadly, in hospital settings. This is a typical case where the additional SRC safety standard is required. The sole must be slip-resistant on all types of flooring, both indoors and outdoors.

The 20345 standard

This standard certifies the toe cap resistance of safety shoes to an impact of 200 joules. This is equivalent to a 20-kilogram mass being dropped from a height of one meter. Safety shoes conforming to standard 20345 must also protect against crushing forces of 1500 kilograms (15 kN). This standard must also include one of the following categorizations: SRA (slip-resistant sole on tiled floors covered with detergent); SRB (slip-resistant sole on steel floors where oil has been spilled); or SRC, as mentioned previously, for a slip-resistant sole on all types of flooring.

The importance of these European classifications, which have been put in place to better protect workers from the dangers of their professional environment, cannot be overstated.