Inhalt
Occupational Safety and Health
Occupational health and safety can be divided into two major areas:
1. Safety at work and health protection
This area covers all the technical and occupational health regulations and also includes the Protection of Employees Act (ArbeitnehmerInnenschutzgesetz) and the regulations enacted with it.
The Protection of Employees Act constitutes the basis for health and safety at work for employees in Austria.
Industrial accidents not only cause a great deal of suffering for those affected, they also result in economic costs (personnel cost, material costs, lost yield and turnover, court costs, a loss of image).
Targeted health and safety measures aim to avoid the danger of accidents, occupational diseases, work-related illness and permanent damage.
But it is not only employers who have obligations, employees also have to cooperate in adhering to health and safety regulations.
At the end of the day, however, employers are responsible for ensuring that their staff work in accordance with health and safety regulations.
The Employee Protection Act applies to employees, in other words to all those who work as part of an employment relationship or training relationship. This also includes temporary staff. Other legal provisions apply to those employed by the federal or provincial governments and local or municipal councils, in agriculture or forestry, in private households, and also to those who work from home.
Employers have to implement the general measures to prevent danger listed below when designing workplaces, work processes, when selecting and using working aids and materials, when deploying workers, and in all measures to protect employees:
- Avoidance of risks
- Assessment of risks which are not avoidable
- Combating danger at its source
- Taking the ‘human factor' into account at work
- Taking technological advances into account
- Eliminating or reducing potential dangers
- Planning the prevention of risks
- Priority for general hazard protection before hazard protection for individuals
- Issue of suitable instructions to employees
2. Protection of particular groups
This covers protection regulations for certain groups of employees who require particular protection such as children and young people or women, particularly pregnant women and mothers who are breast-feeding. It also covers regulations on working hours and rest days (including the special regulations for certain occupational groups, e.g. drivers).
