Für welche betrieblichen Kontexte ist der Prozess der Gefährdungsbeurteilung anschlussfähig?

By converting EU guidelines into national law in 1996 the German legislature obliged all enterprises to conduct workplace risk assessments (WRA). According to the law, WRA is to be understood as a continuous improvement process. However, the frequency and quality of the application of WRA leave a lot to be desired. Latest logistic regression analyses carried out by the “GDA company survey 2011” (N = 6,500) and commissioned by the Joint German OSH Strategy show that the availability of occupational safety experts, the presence of work councils in the company and the obviousness of risks and strains pertaining to a particular branch on the one hand and the degree of conformity companies display in complying with the law on the other hand are positively correlated. Mostly, the same correlations can be reported with regard to the extent of possible dangers arising from incompliance with the regulations, the level of knowledge concerning the rules for WRA implementation, as well as of the proscribed contact frequency with the labour inspection authorities. The findings vary across to company size and branch. These results suggest that the highly demanding character of the statutory obligation must be communicated more clearly, and must include SMEs and branches with lower levels of physical strain.