Economic Effects of Occupational Safety and Health

摘要

Currently the German economic and social policy are going through an intensive phase of reform. Therefore short-term effective interventions in the legal regulations of labour market, health and pension policy are not suficient any longer. Long-term effects require changes in the central regulations of the downstream sub-systems in social security. This debate is accompanied by a political initiative for legal simplification and deregulation. Even the area of occupational safety, which was relatively solid so far, is now effected by this discussion, too. This situation represents a major challenge for German occupational safety. Very regulated issues have to be relieved, dis-proportionated demands for deregulation have to be weakened. Economic arguments can also be utilised for this purpose. In recent years BAuA has made an effort to develop such arguments for political and entrepreneurial decision making processes in co-operation with other national and international partners. These arguments concern four levels: 1. The economic benefit of occupational safety and health for the companies 2. The contribution of occupational safety and health for the national economy 3. The positive effects of occupational safety and health for the stabilisation of social security systems 4. The positive effects of external economic incentives for entrepreneurial occupational safety and health The innovative accomplishment of these challenges is addressed in this article.