Security officers support the implementation of security measures in an organization. There are safety officers in different work areas, the specific functions differ depending on the area and legal basis.
Safety officers (SiBe) are persons appointed in writing by a company who support the entrepreneur, the managers, the occupational safety specialist , the company doctor and colleagues in avoiding accidents, work-related illnesses and work-related health hazards. Safety officers are employees of the company.
The person is to be appointed in every company (or locally independent parts of the company) with more than 20 employees (the accident insurance institutions can make different stipulations) and is based in Germany (§ 22 SGB VII ). Due to their local, specialist and specialist knowledge, the safety officers have the task of recognizing accident and health hazards ( occupational safety ) in their work area and reacting appropriately to them, as well as observing whether the prescribed protective devices and equipment are in place.
Safety officers are there to provide support at their respective work level without any fixed time commitment, act as multipliers for employees and, through their presence and role model function, as well as their collegial action, cause employees to behave in accordance with safety standards. As "good practice" z. B. the use of security officers as godparents for newcomers to the company.
Safety officers work exclusively on a “voluntary” basis (remuneration is covered by the employee's wages or salaries) and can in no way replace the advisory role of an occupational safety specialist or a company doctor. The position of SiBe may also be necessary in voluntary organizations; this is regularly the case with volunteer fire brigades, for example .
Safety officers should not be superiors at the same time. This describes the optimal condition for the majority of the companies; generally sticking to this statement for all industries and company structures does not make sense and does not reflect company practice. Safety officers are also members of the occupational safety committee (ASA).
The appointment of safety officers is prescribed by the employers' liability insurance association in companies (or locally independent parts of the company) with regularly more than 20 employees . When appointing a safety officer, the works council or staff council is to be involved (Section 22 of Book VII of the Social Code). Criteria for the assignment of the safety officers in the company are the spatial proximity, the temporal proximity and the technical proximity of the responsible safety officer to the employees.
Safety officer in figures (Germany 2017, source: DGUV)
- Total of security officers: 670,858
- 506,852 safety officers work in the commercial sector.
- 164,006 safety officers work in the public sector and in school accident insurance.
- On average, there is one safety officer for every 80 employees in the commercial sector.
- 89.9436 safety officers take part in training courses run by accident insurers and the private sector every year.
Safety officer tasks The safety officer is an employee in a company who, in addition to his main job, contributes to improving health and occupational safety.
His tasks generally include advising and mediating between colleagues and those responsible for occupational safety in the company. In addition, he supports the risk assessment and is part of the occupational safety committee .
Security officer according to § 22 SGB VII (OSH) should be distinguished from often just referred to staff whose job it is to the security for the purposes of crime prevention and control, site security (also see or fire police respects Brandschutzbeauftragter ) to ensure.
The guidelines for the equipment and operation of road tunnels, edition 2006 (RABT 2006, Germany) provide for the function of a safety officer for the safety of road tunnels . The safety officer is appointed by the tunnel manager. The security officer must be recognized by the administrative authority and has the task of coordinating all preventive and security measures to ensure the safety of users and operating personnel. It is independent and not bound by instructions on all issues relating to the safety of road tunnels. He can perform his tasks and functions in several tunnels in a region. Its tasks are in detail:
- He ensures coordination with the emergency services and participates in the development of operational processes.
- He participates in the planning, implementation and evaluation of operations in the event of an incident.
- He participates in the design of safety programs and in the definition of specifications for structural facilities, equipment and operation both for new tunnels and in relation to the renovation of existing tunnels.
- He ensures that the operating personnel and the emergency services are trained and he helps organize exercises that are held regularly.
- He gives expert advice on the acceptance of structural facilities, the equipment and the operation of tunnels.
- He ensures that the structures and equipment in tunnels are maintained and repaired.
- He participates in the evaluation of significant incidents or accidents.
Every manufacturer of medical devices or their authorized representative must appoint a safety officer. The safety officer for medical devices must have the necessary specialist knowledge to carry out his task, e.g. B. through a completed scientific, medical or technical university degree and at least two years of professional experience.
The tasks of the safety officer for medical devices include collecting and evaluating reports that have become known about risks associated with medical devices. Furthermore, he has to coordinate the necessary measures in the company and indicate known medical device risks. The legal basis for this is Section 30 MPG in Germany and Section 78 MPG in Austria.
The German Telecommunications Act obliges the operators of public telecommunications networks and the providers of publicly accessible telecommunications services to appoint a security officer. The law does not place any special technical or personal requirements on the safety officer.
Other European countries
There are safety officers in occupational safety in 20 other EU countries. The threshold for the number of employees differs between 5 and 50, however. Another major difference lies in the procedure for appointing safety officers, who are elected by the workforce in some member states, and appointed by the unions or employers in others. The training obligation and duration is regulated differently. In the Netherlands there is an alternative system to the security officer. In Austria, he is called the Security Representative (SVP); the number, selection and scope are regulated there in the Federal Government Ordinance on Security Representatives (B-SVP-VO). In Switzerland, too, there are safety officers in occupational safety, but their tasks are more comparable to the tasks of the German occupational safety specialist.
- Brochure safety officers in the company PDF file of the professional association for health services and welfare (occupational safety; 324 kB)
-  Safety officer in FB ORG, German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV)
- DGUV regulation 1 , § 20; Retrieved on: November 13, 2014
- DGUV Information 211-042 "Safety Officer"
- TKG § 109 Technical protective measures , No. 4th
- Dr. Simon Kaluza: Article. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 20, 2014 ; accessed on November 13, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.