General information on occupational health and safety
Productive employees are essential for the success of a company. However, only healthy employees and a health-oriented working environment make it possible to achieve the best possible performance. The aim of occupational health and safety is to protect the health of all employees and includes all measures, means and methods to prevent health and safety hazards.
All about occupational safety
Current legal regulations on occupational health and safety
Occupational health and safety in Germany is regulated by numerous laws, ordinances and directives.
Occupational Health and Safety Act ArbSchG
The Occupational Health and Safety Act is the central law for occupational health and safety in the workplace. In particular, it regulates the rights and obligations of both employers and employees. In particular, it sets out the obligations for employers,
- assess potential health and safety hazards at the workplace and
- derive suitable protective measures from this
In the course of this, the employer must also ensure a functioning occupational health and safety organization in the company and integrate these structures and processes.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act initially only provides scope for employers to make decisions. It is supplemented and concretized by further occupational health and safety regulations.
These include:
- Workplace Ordinance ArbStättV
- Construction site ordinance
- Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health BetrSichV
- Noise and vibration health and safety regulations
- Hazardous Substances Ordinance
Occupational Safety Act ASiG
The Occupational Safety Act regulates the requirement for employers to appoint company doctors, safety engineers and other specialist personnel. It also defines their respective tasks and regulates the corresponding cooperation with regard to occupational safety. The main aim of the law is to prevent accidents.
Risk assessment
At the heart of the ArbSchG is the employer's obligation to carry out a risk assessment at the workplace. As part of the risk assessment, all potential hazards should be identified in order to subsequently derive suitable measures to protect employees.
As part of the risk assessment, the entire workplace as well as the individual workplace should be analyzed for sources of physical and mental stress.
How such a risk assessment is to be carried out is not defined in detail and should therefore be based on each individual case. The respective type and size of business should be decisive.
However, the following general steps are recognized as standard:
- Preparation of the risk assessment
- Determining the hazards
- Assessing the hazards
- Defining specific protective measures
- Implementing the measures
- Checking the implementation
- Continuation of the risk assessment
Regardless of the type or size of the company, the Occupational Health and Safety Act also stipulates the obligation to document the risk assessment. The documentation must contain the results of the risk assessment, the measures derived from it and the results of the review of the measures.
Various institutions can support employers in carrying out their assessment tasks. Companies are supported, for example, by
- Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
- the occupational health and safety authorities of the federal states and
- the statutory accident insurance institutions
- Different commercial providers
Occupational safety instruction
Accidents at work are usually caused by human error. The Occupational Health and Safety Act takes this into account by obliging employers to provide their employees with sufficient instruction on health and safety at work. This applies in particular to
- before taking up employment for the first time,
- when changing to a new area of responsibility or
- if new work equipment is to be used.
Employer training should always aim to raise awareness of potential hazards in the workplace and encourage employees to behave in a safe manner.
Occupational safety measures
Occupational health and safety measures must be taken at different levels. A basic distinction is made between the following areas
- Technical occupational safety
- Social occupational health and safety
Technical occupational safety
Technical occupational health and safety includes all areas that affect the safety and health of employees at work. Consequently, the following areas fall under technical occupational health and safety:
- Safety in workplaces
- Noise and vibration protection
- Work equipment
- Radiation
- Hazards due to electromagnetic fields
The first two points are mainly important for the design, furnishing and equipment of office spaces.
Safety in workplaces
The Workplace Ordinance provides employers with regulations on how workplaces must be set up and operated in order to ensure the safety and health of employees. The provisions of the ordinance serve as general guidelines and do not provide any detailed information.
For operational practice, they are therefore supplemented by technical rules for workplaces (ASR), which specify the general requirements of the ArbStättV.
The workplace includes all places on the company's premises, inside or outside buildings. Escape routes, sanitary facilities and break rooms as well as individual workstations are therefore part of the workplace.
The following information, among others, can be found in the Workplace Ordinance:
- General requirements
- Dimensions of rooms
- Floors, walls, ceilings, roofs
- Windows, skylights
- Doors, gates
- Traffic routes
- Working conditions
- Movement area
- Arrangement of the workstations
- Equipment
- Lighting and line of sight
- Room temperature
- Ventilation
- Noise
- Measures for the design of VDU workstations
- General requirements for VDU workstations / ergonomics at the workplace
- General requirements for screens and display devices
- Requirements for display screen equipment and work equipment for stationary use at workplaces
- Requirements for portable display screen equipment for mobile use at workplaces
- Requirements for the user-friendliness of VDU workstations
Noise and vibration protection
In the manufacturing industry in particular, physical influences such as noise and machine vibrations can have a major impact on employees' health. But even in the office, there can quickly be considerable noise pollution from work equipment, colleagues on the phone or similar. As a result, noise-induced hearing loss has been at the top of the list of occupational illnesses for many years. The Noise and Vibration Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance (LärmVibrationsArbSchV) requires employers to ensure that suitable measures are taken to comply with noise and vibration limits.
Social occupational health and safety
Some people and occupational groups are particularly worthy of protection, especially young people, (expectant) mothers and employees in the area of passenger and goods transportation. There are further regulations to protect them from excessive demands and damage to health. Together with the regulations on working hours, these form the area of social occupational health and safety.