An occupational safety service contract must state how many hours of support the business receives under DGUV Regulation 2, which services are included, who provides support and who covers, how long the contract runs and who owns the documentation. If one of these points is missing, the gap usually shows during an inspection or a change of provider.
How support by an external occupational safety specialist works overall is covered on that page. This article goes through the contract itself, clause by clause.
The service contract is the two-sided agreement between a business and a freelance occupational safety specialist or an external service on the scope, content and duration of safety support. Its basis is section 19 ASiG: the employer can meet the duty to appoint by engaging an external service to perform the tasks under section 6 ASiG.
Contract vs. appointment: what the contract does not replace
The service contract governs services, fees and term with the provider. The appointment under section 5 paragraph 1 ASiG transfers the tasks in writing to a named, qualified person. Both documents belong side by side in the records, and the contract should name the person who will later be appointed.
What the appointment looks like and what it needs is covered in appointing an occupational safety specialist. For the contract, one mandatory item follows: the name and qualification evidence of the supporting person under section 7 ASiG, not only the provider's company name.
The ASiG draws a clear line on the works council. Employed occupational safety specialists are appointed with the works council's approval under section 9 paragraph 3 sentence 1 ASiG. Before a freelance occupational safety specialist or an external service is engaged, the works council must be heard under section 9 paragraph 3 sentence 3 ASiG. The consultation should take place before signing and be documented.
Checklist: what belongs in the contract
An auditable service contract answers ten questions: who is supported, under which support group, with how many hours, by whom, with which services, with which initial effort, with which cover, with which reports, for how long and with which handover at the end. The table summarises the points with their legal basis.
| Point | What the contract should state | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Business | sites and weighted headcount | section 2 paragraph 5 DGUV Regulation 2 |
| Support group | WZ code and group, usually group III for offices | Annex 2 section IV DGUV Regulation 2 |
| Support hours | basic support and company-specific support separately in hours | Annex 1 or Annex 2 DGUV Regulation 2 |
| Split | hours for occupational safety specialist and company doctor, at least 20 percent each | Annex 2 DGUV Regulation 2 |
| Person | name and qualification evidence of the supporting specialist | sections 5 and 7 ASiG |
| Services | inspections, risk assessment, accident investigation, safety committee | section 6 ASiG |
| Initial effort | one-off services in year one, shown separately | agreement |
| On-site share | on-site share, digital support only up to the permitted limit | section 6 DGUV Regulation 2 |
| Reports | frequency and form of activity reports | section 5 DGUV Regulation 2 |
| Term | start, duration, renewal, notice, adjustment for growth | agreement |
| Documentation | ownership, format and release at contract end | section 6 ArbSchG |
| Data protection | data processing agreement where the provider processes employee data | Art. 28 GDPR |
Support hours: support group and both parts shown separately
Support hours are the core of the contract. For businesses with more than 20 employees Annex 2 DGUV Regulation 2 applies: basic support equals employees times the factor of the support group, in offices 0.5 hours per head and year for the occupational safety specialist and the company doctor together. Company-specific support is added as a separate item.
A contract that only states an annual price cannot be checked. If the support group is named, it can be verified against the WZ code, as described in support group and WZ code. The support hours calculator gives the hours for your own business.
| Business | Annex | Basic support per year | Minimum share per side | What else belongs in the contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 employees | Annex 1 | no fixed hours | not applicable | support with the risk assessment and event-driven support |
| 40 employees | Annex 2 | 20 hours | 4 hours | company-specific support, safety committee |
| 120 employees | Annex 2 | 60 hours | 12 hours | company-specific support, safety committee, several inspections |
For the office with 15 employees the contract therefore has to describe services instead of hours: which support with the risk assessment, at what interval, and how events such as an office move are billed. Travel time does not count as support time under Annex 2 DGUV Regulation 2 and, if charged, belongs in a separate item.
Occupational safety specialist and company doctor: the split in the contract
Basic support under Annex 2 DGUV Regulation 2 is a joint figure for the occupational safety specialist and the company doctor. Each side receives at least 20 percent; the business allocates the rest after advice from both. The contract should state the chosen split in hours, even if the company doctor comes through another provider.
Occupational safety specialist vs. company doctor in the contract: the specialist covers inspections, risk assessment and technical questions, the company doctor the occupational medicine side. Offer-based screening for screen work under ArbMedVV does not count towards basic support and belongs to company-specific support. More in company doctor in the office: when is one required?.
If the two sit in separate contracts, their hours together must make up basic support. A common mistake: each contract calculates with the full 0.5 hours per head, and the business pays for basic support twice.
Initial effort in year one
Initial effort is the work that only arises at the start of support: the first inspection, the first full risk assessment, setting up the records and taking stock of first aiders, testing intervals and training. It often exceeds ongoing basic support and therefore belongs in the contract as a separate item.
Without separate listing it remains unclear whether initial effort sits inside basic support hours or is charged on top. An office with 40 employees has 20 hours of basic support per year for both sides together; a first risk assessment with inspection and action plan can absorb a large part of that. How the items add up to an annual budget is shown in what does an occupational safety specialist cost?.
Initial effort arises a second time if the records do not come along when you change provider. That is another reason why initial effort and the documentation clause belong together.
Term, notice and growth
No law governs term, renewal or notice period. The only requirement is that the business is supported without a gap. The contract should therefore clearly state start, duration, renewal and notice, and include a rule on how the hours change when headcount rises or falls.
Multi-year terms give both sides predictability, shorter ones more flexibility. The adjustment clause matters more than the duration: if an office grows from 18 to 25 employees, it moves from Annex 1 to Annex 2, needs fixed support hours and, above 20 employees, an occupational safety committee under section 11 ASiG. A contract without an adjustment rule no longer fits.
The notice period should be long enough to appoint a successor. If you are currently tied to a contract you are unhappy with, the options are in unhappy with your occupational safety specialist.
Documentation, cover and reports
The documentation duty under section 6 ArbSchG lies with the employer, not the provider. The contract must therefore state that the risk assessment, inspection records, training records and reports belong to the business and are released in full in a common format when the contract ends, even if they sit in the provider's portal.
Three further clauses secure day-to-day operation:
- Cover: a named person with qualification under section 7 ASiG for holidays and illness. If the supporting person changes permanently, a new appointment is required.
- Availability: a response time for requests, for example after a workplace accident or a letter from the Berufsgenossenschaft.
- Reports: under section 5 DGUV Regulation 2 the occupational safety specialist reports regularly in writing or electronically on their activities. The contract sets frequency and form.
Under section 6 DGUV Regulation 2 support is in principle provided in person; in standard support, digital support is permitted up to one third once the business is known from an initial inspection. A contract without on-site visits does not fit that rule. Further points to check before choosing a provider are in choosing an occupational safety specialist.
Checking a service contract in six steps
With the draft contract, the staff list and the WZ code, the check takes about an hour. The order follows the logic of DGUV Regulation 2: count first, then classify, then calculate, then read the clauses. Settle unclear points in writing with the provider before signing.
- Count employees. Determine the annual average headcount and weight part-time staff under section 2 paragraph 5 DGUV Regulation 2, so the annex and support hours are right.
- Match the support group. Compare the business's WZ code with the support group named in the contract. Office and administrative businesses are almost always in group III.
- Recalculate the hours. Check basic support and company-specific support separately and confirm that the occupational safety specialist and the company doctor each receive at least 20 percent of basic support.
- Read the service list. Look for inspections, risk assessment, training support, reports, safety committee and initial effort one by one and settle open points before signing.
- Secure documentation and cover. Put in writing the release of all records in a common format, a named qualified substitute and a response time.
- Appointment and works council. After signing, appoint the supporting person in writing under section 5 ASiG and, where a works council exists, consult it before the engagement under section 9 paragraph 3 ASiG.
More in the article 6 hidden costs of office safety.
Safety Club discloses support group, support hours, initial effort and documentation in the contract: an occupational safety specialist on site plus digital, audit-proof documentation that belongs to the business. We review an existing contract in an initial consultation; the process shows what happens next.
This article is general guidance and does not replace legal advice on your individual case. What governs is the current version of the ASiG and ArbSchG, together with the version of DGUV Regulation 2 issued by the accident insurance institution that covers you.
