Increasing the threshold in companies for the appointment of safety officers

In particular, the Bundestag voted on part of a federal government bill to implement EU Regulation 2024/2748 with regard to emergency procedures due to an internal market emergency for gas appliances and personal protective equipment, specifically on Article 3 amending Book Seven of the Social Security Code. The vote was based on the recommendation of the Committee for Labor and Social Affairs, which had recommended the adoption of the draft law in an amended version. The background to the draft law is the implementation of EU requirements for so-called emergency procedures in the internal market. In crisis situations, these are intended to ensure that certain products, such as gas appliances or personal protective equipment, can be brought to market more quickly to avoid supply bottlenecks. The roll-call vote explicitly referred to a part of the draft law (Article 3), which is intended to amend the regulations in Book Seven of the Social Security Code. This involves the appointment of security officers in companies. In the future, the obligation to do this will depend more on the size of the company and the specific risk situation. A fixed obligation only applies to 50 or more employees, while it is only intended for smaller companies if there is a particular risk. Article 3 of the Federal Government's bill to amend the Seventh Book of the Social Code (Security Officers) was approved with 430 yes votes. 132 MPs voted against and there were no abstentions.