Press Release No. 57/2011 IG Metall Calls for More Staff for Occupational Safety and Health Oversight

Düsseldorf – IG Metall has called for an increase in staffing at the occupational safety and health regulatory agencies. “With the current staffing levels at the regulatory agencies, effective oversight of workplaces is virtually impossible. Only if staffing is finally increased will the authorities have a chance,” said Hans-Jürgen Urban, executive board member of IG Metall, speaking to works councils and staff councils at the international occupational safety and health trade fair in Düsseldorf on Thursday.

The situation is dire, said the IG Metall occupational safety and health expert. According to current figures, the federal states have cut approximately 1,300 positions in the areas of occupational physicians and labor inspectors over the past ten years. Urban criticized the fact that some federal states seem to place so little value on the health of workers in offices and factories that they have cut more than 40 percent of the positions in the authorities. These staff cuts are not without consequences. “The number of orders for occupational safety measures has declined by 46 percent—not because work has become safer, but simply because there aren’t enough staff in the agencies to identify the serious deficiencies in workplaces,” said Urban.

In addition to the insufficient number of employees in the occupational safety and health agencies, their qualifications also give cause for criticism. Mental health issues play virtually no role in the inspections conducted by supervisors at workplaces. This is a consequence of the inadequate qualifications of the supervisory staff. “If workplaces are not to increasingly become a health hazard for their employees, then the regulatory agencies need more and better-qualified staff,” the union representative demanded.