Occupational Health and Safety

Occupational health and safety comprises all measures that ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of all employees during the work. These include all necessary legal, organisational, technical and medical preventive measures. The essential aim is to prevent accidents, hazards, harm, nuisance and avoidable stress. Occupational health and safety is also concerned with the creation of humane workplaces, working processes and working conditions.

The basic health and safety provisions are contained in the Health and Safety at Work Act ("Arbeitsschutzgesetz"). Other special health and safety aspects are regulated, for example, by the following important laws and legal provisions:

• Act concerning plant physicians, safety engineers and other occupational safety specialists ("Gesetz über Betriebsärzte, Sicherheitsingenieure und andere Fachkräfte für Arbeitssicherheit"; "Arbeitssicherheitsgesetz")
• Equipment and Product Safety Act ("Geräte- und Produktsicherheitsgesetz")
• Occupational Safety Ordinance ("Betriebssicherheitsverordnung")
• Hazardous Substances Ordinance ("Gefahrstoffverordnung")
• Workplace Ordinance ("Arbeitsstättenverordnung")

The employer is primarily responsible for complying with the health and safety provisions. The respective federal state authorities (in particular the Factory Inspectorate) ensure that the health and safety regulations are maintained. As funding bodies for statutory accident insurance, the trade associations are responsible for prescribing accident prevention regulations that are to be observed in addition to the state health and safety provisions. The trade associations’ supervisory bodies monitor compliance with theses accident prevention regulations.