Occupational safety specialist for offices in the Ruhr area
From Duisburg to Hamm, Safety Club provides administrations, head offices and service businesses with an occupational safety specialist who advises, carries out inspections and delivers safety training on site. The Ruhr area has no single administration: three district governments supervise occupational safety here, and three VBG district offices are responsible.
Safety Club provides the external occupational safety specialist for office businesses in the Ruhr area: one contract with predictable annual costs, a specialist from the network on site, physician, travel, risk assessment and safety briefings in the price, and audit-proof documentation on our platform, the client portal. See in a few clicks what you pay within this full package, in the quote calculator.
Dortmund
Essen
Duisburg
Bochum
Gelsenkirchen
Oberhausen
Hagen
Hamm
Mülheim an der Ruhr
Herne
and more
Ruhr area: three administrative districts, three VBG district offices
The cities of the Ruhr are split between the administrative districts of Düsseldorf, Arnsberg and Münster, and each of these district governments has its own occupational safety departments. On the VBG side, the Duisburg district office covers most of the region; Hagen and Hamm, on its edges, belong to other district offices.
State occupational safety authority
Cities
VBG district office
Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf
Essen, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Mülheim an der Ruhr
Duisburg
Bezirksregierung Arnsberg
Dortmund, Bochum, Herne
Duisburg
Bezirksregierung Arnsberg
Hagen
Bergisch Gladbach
Bezirksregierung Arnsberg
Hamm
Bielefeld
Bezirksregierung Münster
Gelsenkirchen
Duisburg
The Bezirksregierung Arnsberg reorganised its occupational safety work by sector on 1 April 2022. Since then, administration, finance and services have been the responsibility of department 57. The Düsseldorf and Münster district governments also work with departments 55, 56 and 57. For cities, districts and the state, the accident insurer is the Unfallkasse NRW rather than the VBG; more on that in the next section.
Unfallkasse, BG ETEM, BGW: who insures whom in the Ruhr
Many employers in the region are not members of the VBG. Cities, districts and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are members of the Unfallkasse NRW, the public-sector accident insurer. The same generally applies to legally independent companies in which a municipality or the state holds the majority, such as a municipally owned company in Bochum or Gelsenkirchen. There are exceptions for municipal holdings: transport companies and electricity, gas and water works do not belong to the Unfallkasse even then (section 129(4) SGB VII).
Energy utilities are often insured with the BG ETEM, which covers electricity, gas, district heating and water supply among other sectors. Social organisations in the voluntary sector usually belong to the BGW, the employers' liability insurance association for health and welfare services. Where an administrative office is part of the same legal entity as an industrial operation, it is insured with the accident insurer of that main business (section 131 SGB VII).
For support from an occupational safety specialist and occupational physician, the choice of insurer makes little difference: each accident insurer adopts DGUV Regulation 2 as its own accident prevention regulation, the Unfallkasse NRW included. Contacts, seminar programmes and forms do differ. Your membership notice states which insurer is responsible. How the system fits together is explained in DGUV and Berufsgenossenschaft: who covers offices.
Public access in the Ruhr's citizens' offices and advice centres
Every day, the citizens' offices of municipal administrations and the advice centres of social organisations receive visitors who do not know the building. For the risk assessment, this means that escape routes and assembly points must be recognisable to strangers too, and the evacuation alarm needs a rule on who takes visitors out of waiting areas and meeting rooms.
Difficult conversations are a form of mental stress that the Occupational Health and Safety Act expressly includes in the assessment (section 5(3) no. 6 ArbSchG). In practice, two things matter: a discreet way to call for help, such as a panic button or an agreed code word, and furniture arranged so that the path to the door stays clear. Mental stress in the risk assessment shows how to record this without much effort.
Older administrative buildings and offices in several Ruhr cities
Many administrations in the Ruhr work in older buildings. An inspection of such buildings should look out for fire doors wedged open and for escape and rescue plans that were never updated after a refurbishment. In rooms under the roof, temperature becomes an issue in summer. The values that apply are listed in Office climate: temperature and ventilation.
An organisation with offices in Essen and Dortmund deals with two district governments: Düsseldorf for Essen, Arnsberg for Dortmund, because state supervision follows the location of the workplace. Each office needs its own risk assessment and its own first aiders in any case. A shared template saves work, as long as the differences between the buildings remain visible in it.
Is a city administration in the Ruhr insured with the VBG?
No. Cities, districts and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are members of the Unfallkasse NRW. The duties are essentially those of the private sector: for public authorities, section 16 ASiG requires equivalent occupational safety, and the Unfallkasse NRW has adopted DGUV Regulation 2 as well. From the first employee, they include the risk assessment, safety training, first-aid organisation and the appointment of an occupational safety specialist and an occupational physician.
Which district government is responsible for an office in Gelsenkirchen?
The Bezirksregierung Münster. Like Bottrop and the district of Recklinghausen, Gelsenkirchen belongs to the Münster administrative district, whereas Essen and Duisburg belong to Düsseldorf, and Dortmund and Bochum to Arnsberg. On the VBG side, Gelsenkirchen is covered by the Duisburg district office.
Who checks working hours in Dortmund: the district government or the insurer?
The Bezirksregierung Arnsberg. The Working Hours Act is enforced by the authorities designated under state law, which in North Rhine-Westphalia are the occupational safety departments of the district governments. The employers' liability insurance association or the Unfallkasse looks after its own accident prevention regulations, such as support under DGUV Regulation 2.
