Basically, the Occupational Safety and Health Act is a German law designed to ensure the health of all employees. The full title is: “Law on the implementation of occupational safety measures to improve the safety and health protection of employees at work”.
Specifically, the law provides:
- Employer’s obligations
- Specifics for working conditions
- Rules for cooperation
- What to do in case of emergency (first aid, medical precautions)
- Obligations and rights of workers
- Fines and sanctions legislation
The Occupational Safety and Health Act obliges the employer to: «1. ensure adequate organization and provide the necessary resources and 2. take precautions so that measures are observed, if necessary, in all activities and integrated into company management structures and that employees can fulfill their cooperation obligations.» (ArbSchG §3(2)) This essentially means that every employer has a binding obligation to ensure the protection of employees. Regardless of the activity performed, it must provide the necessary resources. This also includes documentation of these measures and their implementation.
What does the law on safety and health at work regulate?
In addition to classic potential hazards (such as chemical, biological or physical risks), the Occupational Safety and Health Act also includes other hazards. This includes the design of work and production processes, work processes and their interaction.
Above all, the aim is to prevent the individual protection measures of individual employees from being neglected. It affects (almost) all workplaces and causes not only physical but also mental damage.
Special protection applies to:
- interns
- judges
- Workers in workshops for disabled people
- Soldiers
- public employees
- miners
- sailors
- home workers
- Women (maternity leave)
What does human work design mean?
This section of the Occupational Safety and Health Act is intended to address the psychological stress of work. This is stated in the Law on Safety and Health at Work: “Organisation and implementation of work procedures, the work process and the working environment, with the aim of adapting the work, as far as possible, to the psychological and physical characteristics, performance and needs of the workers”.
This means: Employers are also responsible for the psychological stress of work and bear responsibility for the consequences.
Impact of job design on employee health
A negative work environment can have serious consequences not only on employees, but also on their performance. Health-promoting working conditions can have a significant impact on employee satisfaction and stress levels. Furthermore, satisfied employees are more motivated and productive.
The more monotonous the work and the more limited employees feel, the greater the likelihood of illnesses, such as mental disorders. Well-designed work, on the other hand, has a positive effect on employee health.
How should workplace safety be implemented?
1. First of all, implementing and complying with workplace health and safety regulations is the employer’s duty. This includes not only ensuring humane working conditions, but also ensuring compliance with occupational health and safety regulations. This means that you must verify and document compliance with workplace safety requirements in your company, for example by recording working hours.
2. If the employee wishes to make changes to the working conditions, he must obtain the approval of the works council. The works council has a broad right of co-determination regarding the company’s internal measures.
3. Every company with 20 or more employees must appoint a safety manager.
4. Commercial inspection of municipalities and district is responsible for checking these requirements. They monitor the extent to which companies meet the requirements for healthy working conditions.
Instructions from employers
The employer is required to provide its employees with sufficient and regular training on health and safety at work. Education must:
- in the event of changes in the areas of responsibility
- after accidents
- before starting a business
- and when new technologies/work equipment are introduced
take place.
The aim of this instruction shall be to strengthen the motivation to behave in a safety-appropriate manner, to correctly assign employees to relevant tasks and to provide employees with comprehensive information on possible dangers and health risks in the workplace.
What is a breach of the Occupational Safety and Health Act?
A violation of workplace safety is considered an administrative offense and can result in a fine of up to 30,000 euros
If the rule is repeated persistently, this will be considered an intentional act (since it endangers the employee’s health or life) and may be punishable by a fine or imprisonment of up to one year.
According to the catalog of fines for workplace safety, poor or missing documentation regarding workplace safety will result in a fine of 5,000 euros. Depending on the circumstances of the infringement, this standard rate may also be higher or lower.
What can be a violation:
- Traffic routes are unsuitable or inadequate
- Protective devices or measures are inadequate or missing
- Protective devices or measures are incomplete
- The danger area is not protected or not marked
- Firefighting resources are inadequate, inadequate or missing
- Escape routes and emergency exits are unsuitable or inadequate
- Safety signs for escape routes or emergency exits are inadequate or missing
- Lighting is inadequate or absent
- There are no daily environmental temperatures that are harmful to health, neither too high nor too low
- The screen or screen device is not suitable
- The toilet room or mobile toilet cabin is missing or cannot be used without connection
- The lounge or relaxation area is inadequate or missing
- The work was not stopped by the employer even if an immediate and significant danger arose
- First aid resources are inadequate or missing
- Employees were not trained before starting work
Since the obligation to ensure workplace safety lies with the employer, the employer is also responsible for violations. Employees cannot be held responsible for crimes.
Occupational Safety and Health Act and Working Hours Act
Similar to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Working Time Act also establishes the employer’s duty of care. The latter, however, mainly concerns the organization of working hours. The Occupational Safety and Health Act is therefore expanded by the Working Time Act. More precisely, the meeting point is the aforementioned paragraph 3 of the law on safety and health at work, which underlines that the employer has a certain obligation of diligence towards the worker.
Here you can find more detailed information on the Working Time Act and topics such as rest periods, Sunday work and maximum working hours.
In September 2022, the Federal Labor Court, with reference to this paragraph, declared the obligation to register working hours for all German companies. In December 2022, the justification was published that the documentation of safety measures at work is already mandatory by law, and therefore also the documentation of working hours.
Since then, for example, in Germany there is already an obligation to record working time, which will now be expanded by your law on electronic recording of working time.
All information on the obligation to register working hours and the bill is available here.
Get safe now
With the mandatory working time recording and the bill on electronic time recording, German companies without a time recording system are no longer compliant with the law – or could certainly encounter problems in the near future. With clockin you are always on the safe side, whether you are a small or medium-sized company.
clockin offers you time recording via app. With just one click you are clocked in and just as quickly clocked out again. Times are recorded to the second, so you don’t have to worry about wasting time.
The system creates an automatic timesheet at the end of the month, can automatically calculate special rules such as surcharges and relieve you of additional paperwork related to on-call.