Workplace permits

General information

Workplaces that may pose a particular risk to the health and safety of employees due to the type of operating equipment, work equipment, the agents or work procedures used must only be set up and operated with a permit from the competent body.

Permit

• A workplace permit is required for the following, for example:
• Medical institutions
• Electricity generation plants with a total installed machine output of more than 10 MW
• Theatres with mechanical stage equipment, theatre workshops
• Radio and television operating centres with regard to their production studios with special fittings, such as film development, workshops or central power supply and large transmitters
• Film studios including their workshops
• Sporting facilities with artificial ice rinks

Permit exceptions

No workplace permit is required for the following, for example:

• Facilities subject to authorisation within the meaning of the Gewerbeordnung
• Pharmacies subject to authorisation within the meaning of the Apothekengesetz
• Public baths and swimming pools subject to licence within the meaning of the Bäderhygienegesetz
• Waste and waste oil treatment facilities within the meaning of the Abfallwirtschaftsgesetz

Enterprises affected

Essentially all establishments, apart from agricultural and forestry establishments, administrative departments and federal, province and municipal schools as well as private households.

Competent authority

• The district administrative authority in whose jurisdiction the facility is to be built and operated:
  • the district authority^{German text}
  • in chartered urban districts^{German text}: the Municipal Executive^{German text}
    • In Vienna: the municipal district office (→ Stadt Wien)^{German text}
• The  locally competent labour inspectorate (→ BMA)^{German text}

Required documents

Employers must submit an application for a workplace permit to the competent authority.

Applicants must include a description of the establishment, the necessary plans and other documents required to assess the establishment in triplicate with the application.

The relevant circumstances for assessing the establishment from the perspective of employee protection must be included in these documents. The plans must primarily provide information about the

• size and location of the working area and its lighting,
• about other business premises and storage rooms,
• about the exits, traffic and escape routes,
• the operating equipment and the
• sanitary facilities.

The establishment description and the other documents must contain, in particular, information about the

• type of establishment and the products it makes or the work done there,
• the lighting, heating and ventilation of the business premises,
• the operating equipment used, other mechanical equipment and operating material,
• the work processes or procedures,
• the agents used,
• the type and quantity of any stored materials, and about the
• number of employees working at the establishment.

Furthermore, health and safety documents must also be presented in triplicate, if it is already possible to produce these documents at the time at which the claim is filed.

Legal bases

• Sections 92, 93 and 117 of the ArbeitnehmerInnenschutzgesetz (ASchG)
• Section 3 of the Verordnung über die Betriebsbewilligung nach dem Arbeitnehmerschutzgesetz

Expert information

Information from the labor inspectorate on the approval/permitting of workplaces (→ BMAW)^{German text}