GERMANY: Signature of a pact on “Work and Health in the Land of Baden-Württemberg”

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The pact signed in Stuttgart in March 2015 “represents an important step for the local government with a view to making Baden-Württemberg a model Land with regard to health and safety at work” said Ms Altpeter, Minister of Social Affairs for the Land. And she added: “Faced with demographic change and changes in the working world, it is increasingly important to protect and improve employees’ health, both for the individual and for the firm. The measures can only produce results if all interested parties act jointly. This is what the signatories* of the pact agree to do”.

The pact is based on the following eleven guidelines:

• Work should not make people sick.
• Everyone is responsible for their own health.
• Population change requires increasing inclusion of job-seekers and employees having a disability. No person and no talents should be left aside.
• Employees in good health and fit for work represent a competitive advantage for companies.
• Employees in good health also help to bolster the Social Security system and the public finances.
• The programmes of the Joint Prevention Strategy constitute binding health objectives and correspond, in particular, to structural prevention in the enterprise.
• Workplace safety and the promotion of health in the enterprise should be reinforced.
• Good management of health in the enterprise astutely combines structural prevention and behavioural prevention.
• SMEs need examples of good practices proving that investing in risk prevention is profitable.
• Appropriate solutions should be implemented jointly and in accordance with the Social Security Code.
• The subject of health in the working world should be discussed at the municipal level within the framework of an interactive debate. 

*Employers, German Trade Union Confederation (DGB-Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund), health insurance funds, injury insurance fund for the public sector, “BG” funds, retirement insurance system, Regional Department of the Federal Labour Office.