Occupational safety depends on advice and internal communication
Trade inspectorate and employers' liability insurance association check the ASA minutes
(ASA = abbreviation for Working Committee)
This is required by law:
§ 11 Health and Safety Committee
Unless otherwise stipulated in another legal provision, the employer shall form an occupational health and safety committee in companies with more than twenty employees; when determining the number of employees, part-time employees with a regular weekly working time of no more than 20 hours shall be taken into account with 0.5 and no more than 30 hours with 0.75. This committee is composed of
- the employer or a person authorized by the employer,
- two members of the Works Council appointed by the Works Council,
- company doctors,
- Occupational safety specialists and
- Safety officer in accordance with § 22 of the Seventh Book of the German Social Code.
The Health and Safety Committee has the task of discussing matters relating to occupational health and safety and accident prevention. The Health and Safety Committee meets at least once a quarter.
Source: ArbSiG Occupational Safety Act
The purpose of the ASA is to create a communication network of all relevant occupational health and safety specialists and decision-makers and thus enable a regular exchange on all topics relevant to occupational health and safety. These can be, for example
- Health and safety in the event of new acquisitions or changes to the production process
- Analysis of the incidence of accidents and occupational illnesses
- Deriving measures to prevent occupational accidents, occupational illnesses and work-related health hazards and following them up
- Determination of measures based on further findings from occupational health screening
- Planning and discussion of measurement results
- Information from employees on potential for improvement in the area of health and safety
- and other topics
The aim is to further develop health and safety at work through regular exchanges and, in particular, to eliminate errors right from the planning phase.
Source: BGHM