On 31 August 2011, the institutions responsible for the Joint German OSH Strategy (GDA) and the social partners signed a new guideline paper. The paper has the purpose of optimizing the rules and regulations governing occupational safety and health. Duplicate regulations are to be avoided, the overhead for companies reduced, and the standard of occupational safety and health further enhanced. The guideline paper forms the basis for a comprehensible, clear and consistent body of rules and regulations.

A core element of the Joint German OSH Strategy (GDA) is the statutory obligation to produce a coherent body of rules and regulations. The guiding principle is that state regulations and the body of regulations produced by state committees are primary instruments for the promotion of workplace safety and health. In view of this principle, what is the relevance of the body of rules and regulations produced by the German Social Accident Insurance institutions?

If standardization results in attention being paid to safety and ergonomics whilst work equipment is still at the design stage, many risks can be averted from the outset. This not only saves considerable macroeconomic and business costs, but also reduces human suffering. The involvement by representatives of the accident insurance institutions in standardization therefore constitutes an important prevention instrument.

With a presidial decision taken in 1996, DIN moved to protect stakeholder groups in standardization activity at national level. The presidial decision was updated in 2007. It set out that should a consensus not be reached in a standards committee and a decision instead be put to a vote, the result could not override the block vote of a stakeholder in standardization. This important decision has now been further substantiated.

On 1 December 2011, the German Equipment and Product Safety Act (GPSG) was replaced by the new Product Safety Act (ProdSG). The new name of the act and its considerable expansion (40 sections rather than the previous 21) would suggest that major changes have been made. Closer inspection shows however that despite numerous detail changes, the proven underlying structure of the GPSG has been retained.

An interview with Klaus Yongden Tillmann. In January 2011, the former Managing Director of the Dortmund chamber of crafts assumed the function of Secretary General at the European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises for Standardisation (NORMAPME) in Brussels.