Abroad|28/09/15

GERMANY: The average corporate contribution rate for occupational safety and health insurance continues to fall

Home > The news of EUROGIP and occupational risks in Europe > GERMANY: The average corporate contribution rate for occupational safety and health insurance continues to fall

Courbe baisseThe average corporate contribution rate – at 1.22% – has never been as low as in 2014. It fell more than 2% compared with the previous year (1.25%).

Never yet have companies had to pay such a small proportion of their payroll to insure their employees against occupational injuries and diseases. This can be explained by an employment rate that is still high, and by a constant decline in the number of injuries.
“Stable contributions contribute to the success of prevention and rehabilitation” explained the director of the DGUV, Joachim Breuer. Occupational injury risk decreased by a further 1% last year, standing at 22.3 cases reported per 1,000 full-time employees. The total number of occupational and commuting injuries reported was 1,044,057, i.e. 1.5% less than the previous year.

Total expenses by the BGs for the private sector and by injury insurance funds for the public sector amounted to €14 billion. Employers’ contributions amounted to €12 billion, i.e. €1.4 billion to insure public-sector employees and school pupils and students, and €10.7 billion in contributions to insure private-sector employees.

“The trend in average contribution rates favourable to companies is partly due to the good economic situation”, according to Breuer. The expenses of the BGs and the public-sector accident insurance funds were slightly higher, but salaries and wages, which serve as a basis for calculating the contributions, increased more rapidly. “It is important, in such a context, that pensions practically did not increase in 2014. What did increase, however, were expenses for risk prevention, medical care and rehabilitation, i.e. investments which positively influence the long-term trend in pension spending” added Breuer. This contributes to intergenerational fairness regarding social security, given that, in an unfunded pension scheme, the burden of pensions weighs largely on future contributors.
To find out more (in german)

Discover other news

Abroad

22/09/23

BELGIUM: what to expect from occupational illnesses in 2022

In 2022, around 38,500 people received compensation for permanent disability due to an occupational disease. And nearly 13,000 workers (private sector and provincial or local administrations, APL) filed a claim for compensation; 211 deaths were recognised, 73% of which were due to asbestos, 17% to silicosis and 10% to other diseases. These are the findings of the Fedris “Statistical Report on Occupational Diseases” 2022.

Abroad

22/09/23

FINLAND: the number of accidents at work rose in 2021

In 2021, more than 91,159 accidents at work occurred in Finland, around 4,500 more than in 2020. As in the previous year, construction workers (10,787), care and health service workers (9,367) and machine shop and foundry workers (7,162) were most affected.