Records and registers

General information

Records and registers are for documentation and traceability purposes. In the context of employee protection, the following obligations are provided for, for example:

Work accidents

Employers must keep records about all

• fatal work accidents
• work accidents that result in injury to an employee with a loss of working time in excess of three calendar days.

These records must be kept for at least five years.

At the request of the Labour Inspectorate, reports about certain work accidents must be created and submitted.

Places of employment

Furthermore, records must be kept, for example, on the performance of annual alarm drills.

Records also need to be kept on the testing of safety lighting systems, alarm systems, air conditioning or ventilation systems, fire detection systems, extinguishers and stationary extinguishing systems and must be stored in the place of employment for a minimum of three years.

Records of the testing of extinguishers are not required if there is a sticker confirming the date of the test and that they are free from defects.

Fitness examinations and check-ups

Records on employees for whom fitness examinations and check-ups are required must be kept and must include the following:

• forename and surname, date of birth and address
• type of work that justifies the obligation to test
• date this work commenced
• date this work ended
• name and address of the examining doctor
• date of each examination.

All assessments of the examining doctor regarding fitness and any decisions from the Labour Inspectorate must be included with the records.

These documents are to be retained until the employee leaves the company. They must then be submitted to the responsible accident insurance provider, who must store the documents for at least 40 years.

Employees exposed to noise

The register is to be kept for those employees whose exposure to noise exceeds the exposure limit for noise that can damage the hearing, whereby the individual effectiveness of personal protective equipment is not to be taken into account.

This register is to be kept fully up to date at all times and must be retained until the end of the exposure in all cases. After the end of the exposure, this must be submitted to the responsible accident insurance provider

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 locally competent labour inspectorate (→ BMAW)^{German text}

Further information

Notification and record-keeping requirements in employee protection (→ BMAW)^{German text}

Legal bases

• Sections 16, 58, 62, 65 of the ArbeitnehmerInnenschutzgesetz (ASchG)
• Sections 12 and 13 of the Arbeitsstättenverordnung (AStV)
• Section 14 of the Verordnung Lärm und Vibrationen (VOLV)