Interview with the occupational health and safety working group
What are the tasks of the “Occupational health and safety” working group and who are its members?
Our working group is made up of members of the Dahlem Staff Council and the General Staff Council. One of our tasks is to ensure that all occupational health and safety regulations and laws are complied with in order to provide employees with a safe working environment.
Your working group hasn’t been running that long. How did you get started?
We worked tirelessly on safeguarding our co-determination rights, ensuring access to all documents required for the carrying out of our tasks and, in the course of our inspections, on recording and tracking deficiencies until these were remedied through appropriate measures.
What is the connection between staff shortages and occupational health and safety?
A lack of staff makes it more difficult to comply with occupational health and safety standards, as our colleagues are exposed to an increased workload, for example due to deadline and performance pressures, overtime and missed breaks. This increases stress and therefore the risk of accidents at work. Last but not least, a lack of rest has a negative impact on health and prevents stress reduction – a vicious circle. Incidentally, this also affects the Occupational Safety Office (DAS) itself, which urgently needs more staff in order to be able to work effectively to improve occupational safety at Freie Universität.
What has been achieved and what are your plans for the future?
By receiving information from our colleagues on site and taking part in inspections, we have recognised deficiencies and hazards and worked towards eliminating them. This has enabled us to improve working conditions step by step. We now want to press ahead with eliminating deficiencies and raising awareness among the responsible heads of department of the duties assigned to them in the area of occupational health and safety. We welcome any suggestions and complaints from our colleagues. These will of course be treated in the strictest confidence.
Information on the new election of the Dahlem staff council
The elections will take place from April 23rd. until May 10, 2024.
Postal voting information (Deadline 22.04.2024)