The Workplace Ordinance (Arbeitsstättenverordnung) serves to ensure occupational safety and health (OSH) provisions for employees when workplaces are set up and operated. It is addressed to employers, who have to ensure workplaces do not pose hazards to employees and any hazards that may remain are kept as small as possible.
Current text of the ordinance
The Workplace Ordinance of 12 August 2004 (Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt, BGBl.) I, p. 2179) was most recently amended by Article 10 of the Act of 27 March 2024 (BGBl. 2024 I No. 109). The revised ordinance entered into force on 1 April 2024.
Objective of the Workplace Ordinance
The Workplace Ordinance has the objective of protecting employees in workplaces and contributing to the prevention of occupational accidents and occupational diseases. A not insignificant proportion of the accidents notified in Germany are attributable to the inappropriate condition, equipment, and maintenance of workplaces, for example accidental falls on damaged flooring and stairways, and transport accidents on unsuitable or overly narrow traffic routes. Serious accidents caused by the shattering of glass walls or glass panels in doors and conditions caused by unhealthy levels of operating noise are also to be prevented. Furthermore, the ArbStättV serves to encourage human-centred work design. This is promoted above all by the requirements concerning healthy air, climate conditions, and lighting and the provision of impeccable social facilities, sanitary and recreation rooms in particular.
Content of the Workplace Ordinance
The Workplace Ordinance (BGBl. I no. 44, 24 August 2004, p. 2179) sets out minimum requirements for employees’ occupational safety and health that are to be observed when workplaces are set up and operated. The ordinance transposes the European Workplaces Directive (89/654/EEC) into national law. Apart from this, Council Directive 92/58/EEC on the minimum requirements for the provision of safety and/or health signs at work is also transposed by a dynamic reference in the Workplace Ordinance. Parts A and B of Annex IV to Council Directive 92/57/EEC on the implementation of minimum safety and health requirements at temporary or mobile construction sites and Council Directive 90/270/EEC of 29 May 1990 on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment are transposed by the ordinance as well.
Occupational safety and health
The main body of the ArbStättV consists of a total of ten sections, to which an annex is attached. This annex is divided into six headings setting out requirements and measures relevant to workplaces under Section 3(1). The ordinance directly transposes the minimum requirements of the European directives mentioned above. Primarily, the ArbStättV sets general safety and health goals instead of providing for specific metrics and detailed requirements. This gives employers greater freedom when taking decisions about the set-up and operation of workplaces. It is of particular significance that organisations take account of the OSH concerns of people with disabilities (Section 3a). The Committee for Workplaces (Ausschuss für Arbeitsstätten, ASTA) assists the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMAS) in an advisory capacity and is tasked with determining the Technical Rules for Workplaces (Arbeitsstättenregeln, ASRs; Section 7).
What is more, apart from dealing with the set-up and operation of workplaces (sections 3a and 4) and the protection of non-smokers (Section 5), the main body of the ordinance sets out specific provisions for work rooms, sanitary rooms, break rooms, standby rooms, and first aid rooms, as well as canteens and accommodation. Section 6 governs the content and delivery of instructions for employees. Section 9 contains a list of criminal and administrative offences for which the public authorities that supervise OSH matters are able to impose fines.
Number 1 of the Annex to the Ordinance lays down general requirements regarding the features of workplaces. Among other things, it covers the dimensions of rooms, floors, roofs, windows, doors, and traffic routes, as well as travellators, loading ramps, and ladders. Reference is made here to safety signs and the general requirements that the design and stability of workplaces be appropriate to the use for which they are intended. Protective measures against special dangers such as falls and incipient fires, as well as requirements for escape and rescue routes are provided for in Number 2 of the Annex. Annex number 3 deals with essential working conditions, such as the amount of space employees have to move around in, the configuration and equipment of workstations, climate conditions, including room temperature, ventilation, and lighting, and noise. Provisions underpinning the arrangement of sanitary, break, standby, and first aid rooms and accommodation can be found in Annex number 4. Annex number 5 covers supplementary requirements for workplaces that are not enclosed on all sides, workstations located outside, and construction sites. The last number of the Annex (6) sets out measures for the design of display screen equipment (DSE) workstations. This part of the Annex was added when the ArbStättV was amended in November 2016.
It is incumbent upon the supervisory OSH authorities (factory inspectorates and occupational safety and health executive) to enforce the ordinance. With DGUV Regulation 1, Principles of Prevention (Grundsätze der Prävention; previously BGV A1), Germany’s social accident insurance providers also have a legal basis on which to perform their preventive remit by applying public OSH rules and regulations.
The Technical Rules for Workplaces are an essential aid for the practical implementation of the ArbStättV.
Technical Rules for Workplaces
The Technical Rules for Workplaces describe measures, offer practical assistance for their implementation, and explain how the OSH goals set out in the Workplaces Ordinance can be achieved and the ordinance’s requirements in relation to employee safety and health complied with by employers when workplaces are set up and operated.
The ASRs represent the state of the art at the time when they are published. They make it easier for employers to carry out risk assessments pursuant to Section 3 of the ArbStättV and stipulate suitable measures for the protection of employees’ health and safety at work. Provided employers implement the ASRs, they may assume they are complying with the ArbStättV’s provisions within the scope of the ASRs (presumption of conformity).
The Workplace Ordinance does not, however, impose an obligation to apply the ASRs. Employers may meet the OSH goals defined in the Workplace Ordinance, including its annex, by implementing alternative measures of their own that diverge from those set out in the ASRs. In this case, they have to eliminate or mitigate in some other way the identified hazards to which employees are or may be exposed such that the same levels of safety and health protection are achieved for employees as would be achieved if the ASRs were to be applied ("state of the art"). This must be documented pursuant to Section 3(3) ArbStättV. A separate application to the competent occupational safety and health authority is not necessary for this purpose.
Where the publication of Technical Rules for Workplaces introduces new requirements that reflect the continuing development of the state of the art, there may be workplaces that have previously been set up and are already being operated where these measures can only be implemented by making extensive modifications that would cause disproportionate hardship in the individual case, which raises the issue of grandfathering. In principle, there can be no grandfathering of ASRs from an OSH point of view. The background to this is the requirement that work-related risks to employees be minimised (Section 4(1) ArbSchG). The question of whether an employer has to adapt a workplace accordingly in order to abide by new provisions or whether the existing workplace continues to comply with the requirements of the Workplaces Ordinance can only be answered by conducting another risk assessment.