An ASA meeting is the meeting of the occupational safety committee (Arbeitsschutzausschuss) under section 11 ASiG, held at least once a quarter and mandatory in businesses with more than 20 employees. Participants are the employer, two works council members, the company doctor, the occupational safety specialist and the safety officers. A good meeting works through a fixed agenda and ends with minutes that assign every measure a responsible person and a deadline.
Why the committee is mandatory and how it fits into your occupational safety organisation is covered in Occupational safety committee (ASA): from when?. This article is the practical page: who sits in the meeting, what goes on the agenda, how the meeting runs and what the minutes must contain.
When an ASA meeting is mandatory
An ASA meeting is mandatory as soon as a business has more than 20 employees (section 11 ASiG). Part-time staff count proportionally under section 11 ASiG: up to 20 hours a week as 0.5, up to 30 hours a week as 0.75, above that in full. A business with 25 people can therefore be below the threshold, and one with 22 people above it.
The proportional count is written into the wording of section 11 ASiG and is often overlooked in practice. Three office businesses show how different the result can be:
| Business | Staff | Calculation | Counted | ASA mandatory? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agency A | 18 full-time, 6 part-time at 15 hrs | 18 + 6 × 0.5 | 21 | Yes |
| Law firm B | 16 full-time, 8 part-time at 25 hrs | 16 + 8 × 0.75 | 22 | Yes |
| Administration C | 15 full-time, 10 part-time at 20 hrs | 15 + 10 × 0.5 | 20 | No, 20 is not more than 20 |
Administration C has 25 people and still no obligation. One additional full-time hire tips the count to 21. If you are close to the threshold, set up the committee ahead of time rather than at the exact moment you cross it.
Who attends the ASA meeting
Section 11 ASiG sets out the participants of the ASA meeting conclusively: the employer or a person they appoint, two works council members chosen by the works council, the company doctors, the occupational safety specialists and the safety officers under section 22 SGB VII. If there is no works council or no safety officer, those seats stay empty.
| Participant | Legal basis | Role in the meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Employer or appointed person | Section 11 ASiG | Usually chairs, decides on measures and budget |
| Two works council members | Section 11 ASiG | Bring in the workforce view, only where a works council exists |
| Company doctor | Section 11 ASiG, DGUV Regulation 2 | Occupational medicine view: check-ups, ergonomics, psychological stress |
| Occupational safety specialist | Section 11 ASiG, DGUV Regulation 2 | Safety engineering view, often prepares agenda and minutes |
| Safety officers | Section 11 ASiG, section 22 SGB VII | Observations from daily work, only where appointed |
The employer's appointed person must have decision-making authority. If management sends someone without budget or instruction authority, measures get discussed but not decided, and they reappear the next quarter.
Since 29 May 2026, safety officers under section 22 SGB VII only have to be appointed in a typical office from 50 employees. An office business with 30 employees and no works council therefore often has just three participants: management, company doctor and occupational safety specialist. How many safety officers are needed at which size is shown by the safety officer calculator.
Guests are allowed as long as the mandatory participants are represented. Useful examples are the head of facility management during a refurbishment, or HR when briefings and first aider training need organising.
Model agenda for the ASA meeting
An agenda for the ASA meeting in an office business has seven to eight fixed items and can be worked through in 60 to 90 minutes. The first item is always the open measures from the previous meeting, the last is the list of decisions with responsible persons and deadlines. Fixed items make the minutes comparable across quarters.
| Item | Content | Brought by | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minutes of the previous meeting, status of open measures | Chair | 10 min |
| 2 | Accidents, near misses, first aid log entries since the last meeting | Occupational safety specialist | 10 min |
| 3 | Risk assessment: updates, open measures, effectiveness | Occupational safety specialist | 15 min |
| 4 | Results of site inspections and observations from daily work | Specialist, safety officers | 10 min |
| 5 | Occupational medicine: check-ups, ergonomics, psychological stress | Company doctor | 10 min |
| 6 | Safety briefings, first aid, fire safety, inspection deadlines | Employer, HR | 10 min |
| 7 | Upcoming changes: move, refurbishment, new equipment, home office | Employer | 10 min |
| 8 | List of decisions, date of the next meeting | Chair | 5 min |
Item three is the most important and the most often neglected. Under section 3 ArbSchG the measures from the risk assessment must be checked regularly for effectiveness, and the occupational safety committee is the natural place to do it. A measure only counts as done once someone has confirmed it works, not as soon as it has been implemented.
Each quarter can add a focus topic, for example the annual plan for safety briefings in the first quarter or preparing the evacuation drill in the third.
How an ASA meeting runs
An ASA meeting runs in five steps: fix the dates for the whole year, send the invitation with the agenda about two weeks ahead, hold the meeting along the agenda, send the minutes within a week and track the agreed measures until the next meeting. Most of the work happens before and after the meeting itself.
- Fix the dates. Set the four dates for the coming year in advance, one per quarter, and send them as a recurring appointment. The ASA meeting planner shows the next quarterly dates at a glance.
- Send invitation and agenda. About two weeks ahead, send the agenda, the list of open measures and supporting documents to all members. Whoever owns a measure brings its status.
- Hold the meeting. First close open measures or extend them with a reason, then discuss new topics. Every new measure gets a responsible person and a deadline in the meeting.
- Send the minutes. Within one week, send the minutes with the list of decisions to all members and file them with the rest of the occupational safety documentation.
- Track the measures. Follow the status between meetings. Anything not done goes automatically onto the next agenda under item 1.
The first meeting after the committee is set up follows a different pattern. It settles who chairs, who takes minutes and who sends invitations, records the state of the occupational safety organisation (appointments, risk assessment, briefings, first aiders) and builds the first list of measures from it. That meeting often takes two hours; the following ones are shorter.
An ASA meeting by video conference is permissible, because section 11 ASiG does not require physical presence. Circulating an e-mail instead of meeting is not a discussion within the meaning of the law. One in-person meeting a year is still worthwhile, ideally combined with a short joint walk-through of the premises.
What belongs in the minutes of the ASA meeting
Minutes of the ASA meeting are not expressly required by law, but they are the only evidence that the committee met quarterly under section 11 ASiG. They contain the date, the participants with their function, the items discussed, the decisions and, for every measure, a responsible person, a deadline and its status.
| Content | Why | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date, place or format | Evidence of the quarterly cycle | 14.10.2026, meeting room 2 |
| Participants with function, absentees | Evidence of the composition under section 11 ASiG | Company doctor excused |
| Agenda items discussed | Shows that a discussion took place | Item 3: risk assessment reception |
| Decisions and measures | Steers implementation | Mount a second first aid kit on the 3rd floor |
| Responsible person per measure | Clarifies who delivers | Office management |
| Deadline per measure | Makes delays visible | 15.11.2026 |
| Status of open measures from earlier meetings | Evidences the effectiveness check | Done, effectiveness confirmed |
Minutes without responsible persons and deadlines record a conversation but steer nothing. During an inspection by the employers' liability insurance association the minutes of recent quarters are routinely requested. How to respond to such a request is covered in Letter from the employers' liability insurance association.
A template with invitation, model agenda and minutes with a list of decisions is available at arbeitsschutzausschuss-vorlage.de (in German). File the minutes where the risk assessment, briefing records and appointments are kept, so that everything is in one place when a request comes in.
The task of the ASA meeting: advise, not decide
Under section 11 ASiG the task of the ASA meeting is to advise on matters of occupational safety and accident prevention. The occupational safety committee is an advisory body, not a decision-making body: responsibility for measures stays with the employer under section 3 ArbSchG. That is why the person with decision-making authority has to be in the room.
Occupational safety committee vs. ongoing support: the occupational safety specialist and the company doctor cooperate under section 10 ASiG and support the business all year under DGUV Regulation 2. The ASA meeting does not replace that support; it is where its results come together and are decided by the employer.
In many office businesses the ASA meeting is the only fixed date on which occupational safety is discussed in a structured way. If you take it seriously, the documents are already together when the employers' liability insurance association gets in touch.
Common mistakes in the ASA meeting
The most common mistakes in the ASA meeting are a missed quarter, a chair without decision-making authority, minutes without responsible persons and deadlines, and measures that stay open for several quarters. All four stand out immediately in an inspection, because they can be read directly from the minutes.
- Finding dates quarter by quarter. Without planning ahead you regularly lose a quarter.
- Counting part-time staff wrongly. Counting heads instead of weighted hours sets up the committee too early, or misses the obligation when several full-time hires join.
- Company doctor permanently absent. The occupational medicine view goes missing, especially on ergonomics and psychological stress.
- Recurring items that never close. An item open in four consecutive sets of minutes proves the opposite of effective occupational safety.
- Minutes vanish in someone's inbox. Without central filing they cannot be found when requested.
Safety Club supports the ASA meeting in office and administrative businesses: an on-site occupational safety specialist prepares the agenda and the minutes, and the decisions go into digital, audit-proof documentation. Get in touch if your committee is starting out or has gone dormant.
This article is general guidance and does not replace legal advice on individual cases. The current versions of the regulations cited and the interpretation of your employers' liability insurance association are what count.
