From Paperwork to Psychology: Germany’s Workplace Safety Overhaul Targets Mental Health and Small Firms

Germany's new workplace safety rules raise safety officer threshold to 50 employees, allow digital training, integrate mental health risk assessments, and update first-aid requirements. Fines up to €10,000.

Workplace safety rules in Germany have been rewritten. A bundle of reforms that took effect at the end of May and on 1 June 2026 introduces higher thresholds for mandatory safety officers, expands the use of digital training hours, and, for the first time, formally integrates mental health into the standard risk-assessment process.

The biggest structural shift raises the threshold for appointing a designated safety officer from 20 to 50 employees. Companies with 21 to 49 staff now only need one if a specific hazard exists. For businesses with fewer than 250 employees and no special risks, a single officer suffices. Ignoring the requirement can trigger fines of up to €10,000.

Parallel to that, the so-called „Kleine Regelbetreuung" — the small-scale routine care model — now covers firms with up to 20 employees, double the previous cap. A new option allows employers to deliver up to one-third of the required care time digitally, as long as an on-site inspection has already taken place. If a complete risk assessment is on file, that digital share rises to 50 percent. The transition period runs until 31 May 2027.

The reforms do not, however, relax the obligation to draw up a first-aid risk assessment. Under Section 5 of the German Occupational Safety Act (ArbSchG), every employer must document how many first-aiders are needed, where defibrillators (AEDs) should be placed, and what emergency equipment must be kept on hand. The factors to consider include the number of employees, the nature of their work, known workplace risks, shift and lone-working patterns, and the typical response time of emergency services. A flawed or missing document can lead to liability risks and fines; faulty instructions posted in the workplace can cost up to €5,000.

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The minimum number of first-aiders remains tied to business size. In firms with 2 to 20 insured employees, one first-aider is enough. Larger operations must train five percent of staff in administrative and commercial roles and ten percent in other areas. Initial training lasts nine teaching units, and refresher courses are due every two years. Agriculture has its own annual programme covering machinery- and animal-related injuries.

A notable novelty took effect on 1 June 2026: for the first time, psychologists, biologists, hygienists and ergonomics experts can qualify as occupational safety specialists. The legislator is betting on a multidisciplinary approach to tackle modern workplace risks.

That shift aligns with a growing emphasis on psychological strain. In a live-streamed expert discussion held on 2 June 2026, specialists stressed that the risk assessment for mental health must focus on working conditions, not on individual employees. The goal is to identify stress-inducing processes and develop effective measures against overload, particularly in high-pressure sectors such as healthcare and social work. Integrating those findings into the general risk assessment, the experts said, is essential to maintaining a resilient workforce.