Protective clothing carries a label most people never read. It lists the standards the garment has been tested against, usually with a pictogram and a string of numbers underneath. Those numbers are not decoration. They are the difference between a garment that suits your job and one that technically looks the part but is not certified for what you are doing with it. Once you know how to read them, comparing two products stops being guesswork.

This is a plain-English reference to the standards you are most likely to meet on UK workwear. It is general information: which standard and which level you need for your work should come from your own risk assessment, not from a guide.

First, the one that underpins the rest

EN ISO 13688 is the general requirements standard for protective clothing. It covers the basics that apply to protective garments in general: innocuousness, sizing and marking, ageing and compatibility. It never appears alone, because on its own it does not tell you what the garment protects against. You will see it listed alongside the standard that actually describes the protection.

So a label reading only EN ISO 13688 is not telling you the garment is protective in any specific way. Look for what sits next to it.

The standards you will actually meet

EN ISO 20471: high-visibility clothing

The hi-vis standard, and the one most UK workers meet daily. Certification depends on how much fluorescent background material and retroreflective material the garment carries, and where it is placed.

• Class 1 is the lowest area of material, Class 2 is more, and Class 3 is the highest and offers the greatest visibility.
• Classes can be combined. Wearing certain certified garments together can achieve a higher class than either alone, but only where the garments are designed and certified for it. You cannot assume it.
• Because the certification depends on the amount and placement of the material, you cannot cut into it, recolour it, or cover it up and keep the certification. That is also why decoration on hi-vis has to be placed carefully.

Which class you need depends on the environment, traffic speeds and your own assessment. Our hi-vis regulations guide covers it in more depth, and our hi-vis range is here.

EN ISO 11612: heat and flame

The general standard for clothing protecting against heat and flame. Its label carries letter codes, each with a performance level, and a garment only carries the letters it has been tested and certified for:

• A — limited flame spread (A1 surface ignition, A2 edge ignition)
• B — convective heat
• C — radiant heat
• D — molten aluminium splash
• E — molten iron splash
• F — contact heat

So a garment marked A1 A2 B1 C1 has been certified for those specific hazards at those levels, and not for molten metal splash. If your work involves a hazard the garment does not carry a letter for, the certification does not cover you for it.

EN ISO 11611: welding

Welding gets its own standard because the hazard profile is specific: spatter, radiant heat and short contact with flame, plus limited electrical protection considerations. It has two classes.

• Class 1 — for less hazardous welding techniques and situations, with less spatter and radiant heat.
• Class 2 — for more hazardous techniques and situations, with more spatter and higher radiant heat.

Welding garments often also carry EN ISO 11612. Our welders' and fabricators' workwear page covers specifying it properly.

EN 1149-5: antistatic

Covers the electrostatic properties of protective clothing, used where static discharge is a risk, typically in flammable or explosive atmospheres. Two points matter in practice. It only works as part of a complete earthed system, so the clothing alone is not the control. And it must cover the non-conforming garments underneath, meaning a synthetic hoodie under an antistatic coverall undermines it.

EN 13034: limited chemical splash

Often called Type 6, this is the lowest level of chemical protective clothing: limited protection against a light spray or small splashes of liquid chemical, not immersion, not sustained contact, and not a substitute for higher-level chemical suits.

Which chemical, which concentration and which contact scenario all matter, and the requirement comes from the substance data and your COSHH assessment rather than from the garment description.

EN 343 and the cold-weather standards

EN 343 covers protection against rain, with performance levels for water penetration resistance and water vapour resistance, in other words waterproofness and breathability. Higher class numbers indicate better performance in that property. Our waterproof ratings guide covers what the numbers mean when you are choosing.

EN 342 covers protective clothing against cold, aimed at genuinely cold environments. EN 14058 covers cool environments, the milder end. A lot of general "winter" workwear carries EN 14058 rather than EN 342, and for outdoor UK work that is often appropriate. Our layering guide covers the practical side.

EN 14404: knee protection

Applies to knee protection for work in a kneeling position, and it is worth knowing because it is one of the most misunderstood on the list. Certification generally applies to the knee pad and the trouser together as a system, since the pad's position and retention depend on the pocket it sits in. Mixing a pad from one product with trousers from another usually means neither is certified as a system. Our work trousers page covers it.

EN 388: gloves against mechanical risks

The four-or-more character code under the glove pictogram, each position a different test, in this order: abrasion, cut (coup test), tear, and puncture, with numeric levels. Later versions of the standard added a letter for the TDM cut test and, where tested, a letter for impact protection.

Reading them in order is the whole trick. A glove strong on abrasion may be weak on cut, and cut resistance is usually the one that matters most for the injuries people actually have. Our glove ratings guide takes it apart properly.

EN ISO 20345: safety footwear

Safety footwear to this standard has toe protection tested to a specified impact and compression level, and then adds a code for the additional properties the boot has, covering things like penetration resistance, water resistance and slip performance. Those codes are the reason two boots that both say "safety boot" are not equivalent. Our safety boot ratings guide decodes them, and the footwear range is here.

Four things worth knowing about certification generally

• Certification is for the garment as supplied. Cutting, altering or decorating a certified garment can affect what it is certified for. That is why we treat branding on protective clothing differently from branding a polo.
• Care affects performance. Many protective properties are affected by laundering, and standards often specify a number of wash cycles the performance was tested to. Follow the garment's own care label, not the workshop routine. Our care guide covers general workwear.
• Layers interact. What is worn underneath protective clothing matters, particularly for flame and antistatic. A certified outer over an uncertified synthetic layer is a compromised system.
• Certification is not the same as suitability. A garment can be perfectly certified and still be the wrong choice for your job. The standard tells you what it was tested for. Your risk assessment tells you what you need.

The short version

Find the standard number, then find the class or level next to it, because that is where the real specification is. EN ISO 13688 alone tells you nothing about protection. Letters and numbers after a standard are a list of exactly which hazards were tested and how well the garment performed. And nothing on a label replaces your own risk assessment, which is what decides which of these you need in the first place.

Send us what your assessment specifies and we will match products to it precisely, rather than guessing a class on your behalf. Our guide to workwear vs PPE covers which items should be coming out of that assessment at all.

General information only. Standards are revised over time and the definitive requirement is the current standard and your own risk assessment.