KAN (17 members) brings together the institutions concerned with occupational safety and health (OSH) in Germany.
KAN is composed of five representatives each from
- the employers,
- the trade unions and
- the State,
- two of whom are from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), the department of the Federal Government responsible for occupational safety and health,
- with the other three coming from the supreme OSH authorities of the federal states (Länder)
plus one representative each from
- the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV)/Association for the Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety in Europe (VFA), which represents the committees of experts of the statutory accident insurance institutions and
- DIN German Institute for Standardization.
- Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE)
- DKE German Commission for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies
- Social Insurance for Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture (SVLFG)
All statutory accident insurance institutions are thus involved in KAN's work.
KAN's chairmanship rotates every two years among the representatives of the employers, trade unions and the State.
This essentially tripartite membership complies with the demand of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC (Art. 7 Par. 4) for an improvement in the involvement of the social partners in standardisation. KAN has gone a step further by establishing one office each for the social partners at the KAN Secretariat.
The KAN Secretariat
KAN's work is supported by a secretariat (currently manned by 25 employees). The KAN Secretariat has an office for each of the social partners (employers and employees). It also maintains a European Representation in Brussels.
The KAN Secretariat is a service provider. It supports the work of KAN by
- formulating comments on standards,
- designing, accompanying and evaluating studies and expert reports for the analysis of standardisation fields,
- preparing KAN meetings and
- implementing KAN's resolutions.
The Secretariat also addresses itself to the interested public and
- reports on KAN's work,
- holds seminars and conferences and
- conducts an exchange of information and views with OSH and standardization experts.
KAN’s European Representation in Brussels
- supports the work of the KAN Secretariat at European level
- represents the views of KAN vis-à-vis the EU institutions and European offices of other bodies
- strengthens KAN's European policy network.
Please contact the Secretariat if you
- require information on EU legislation, existing standards or current standardization processes,
- wish to draw attention to areas where standards are lacking or insufficient in terms of occupational safety and health, or areas where standardization would be inappropriate from the OSH point of view.
KAN membership in the ISSA
KAN is an associated member of the International Section on Information for Prevention of the International Social Security Association (ISSA).