Prevention

Prevention activities aim to prevent accidents at work, occupational diseases and work-related health risks. Modern prevention takes an integrated approach, combining safety equipment, occupational medicine and health protection. The prevention work carried out by the "BGs" (institutions responsible for statutory accident insurance and prevention) is intended to ensure safety and health at work. The BGs advise, inspect, conduct research, train and provide information, thereby creating an environment conducive to safety and health at the workplace and on the roads. Successful prevention The BGs perform their prevention tasks successfully, as the figures show: since 1970, the number of "reportable accidents" has decreased by 56% and the number of "fatal accidents" by 75%; at the same time, contribution rates fell from 1.51 to 1.31% of payrolls, making statutory accident insurance the only social security segment to see a sustained decrease in contribution rates; and the forecasts confirm that this trend is set to continue. If the accident rate were still at the 1992 level, the BGs would have had to pay out around 800 million euros more in compensation for the occupational accidents in 2005 alone. In 2004, compensation payments accounted for 7.6 billion euros of the BGs’ expenditure. Around one third of that figure (2.6 billion euros) was spent on rehabilitation (predominantly medical treatment) and the other two thirds (approximately 5 billion euros) were for pensions and other forms of financial compensation. In the same year, investment in prevention was increased to just under 734 million euros.