Incidently, what do you wear when you do a walkround inspection on the apron with your or your neighbour's APU running? Own belt and underpants obviously, but PPE or no PPE? Do you buy your own ear defenders for that too?
I have a flight engineer to do that, thanks. However, no, the company does not provide "ear defenders." I'm perfectly capable of obtaining my own earplugs if necessary, but generally I just put my finger in my ear. Works like a charm.
If you and your colleagues put on your oxygen masks regularly in your operation then yes, why would you be expected to pull one on after some unknown had pulled it on before you unless it had been properly cleaned by some salaried specialist in between times?
Oxygen masks are mounted in the airplane as aircraft-furnished equipment. We don't carry our own. With a few excepted military applications, I'm not aware of many operations in which pilots do carry their own. Certainly the O2 mask may be considered protective equipment; more so than the headset, which is communication equipment. Never the less, airlines don't issue them. Corporate departments don't issue them. By your own standards, that would constitute a terrible breach of law and ethics. Yet it's a global, industry standard.
No salaried specialist cleanses our masks. A quick wipe down with a sanitary cloth takes care of that, and it's the responsibility of the crewmember to do so.
then the law again puts a statutory duty (UK at any rate) on the employer to provide safe tools and systems.
Well you just feel free to take your employer to task in the UK, by all means, then. A big, bright, wonderful world exists beyond the borders of the UK. You may have heard of it.
As an engineer you will know that you have to inspect your tool to ensure it ain't unsafe/you can rely on it before you use it. If you are not issued with it personally and you are not the salaried radio bits tester, how do you know whether or not it has a fault? Will it be registered as one in the aircraft tech log or will you have to find it sometime during the next flight yourself?
The procedure for testing the headset in the airplane is very simple, actually. I remove it from it's place by the smoke goggles, uncoil the cord, plug it in, and listen to ATIS.
If I wish to test the microphone, I can pick it up and make a call. Not exactly rocket science. There exists no requirement to make a log of this action for flight or maintenance purposes, and there is no legal duty to do so.
You don't understand this?