Occupational safety specialists are not subject to directives in the application of their expertise and are responsible for the correctness and completeness of their advice.

The responsibility for the fulfillment of duties and the implementation of necessary measures in occupational safety lies with the employees with personnel responsibility!

The duties of the safety officers are derived from § 6 of the German Occupational Health and Safety Act:

The occupational safety specialists have the task of supporting the employer in occupational safety and accident prevention in all matters of occupational safety, including the humane design of work. In particular, they have

1. To advise the employer and persons otherwise responsible for occupational safety and accident prevention, in particular in the case of
   1. the planning, execution and maintenance of plant facilities and of social and sanitary facilities,
   2. the procurement of technical work equipment and the introduction of work procedures and working materials,
   3. the selection and testing of personal protective equipment,
   4. the design of workplaces, work processes, the working environment and other ergonomic issues,
   5. the assessment of working conditions
2. to carry out safety inspections of the plant and technical equipment, in particular prior to commissioning, and of work processes, in particular prior to their introduction
3. observing the implementation of occupational safety and accident prevention and, in connection therewith, to
   1. to inspect the workplaces at regular intervals and to notify the employer or the person otherwise responsible for occupational safety and accident prevention of any deficiencies found, to propose measures to eliminate these deficiencies and to work towards their implementation,
   2. to pay attention to the use of personal protective equipment,
   3. to investigate the causes of accidents at work, to record and evaluate the results of investigations and to propose measures to the employer for the prevention of such accidents at work
4. to work towards ensuring that all employees in the company behave in accordance with the requirements of occupational safety and accident prevention, in particular to instruct them on the accident and health hazards to which they are exposed at work, as well as on the facilities and measures for averting these hazards, and to assist in the training of safety officers.

To provide contact information for the occupational safety specialists responsible for Witten/Herdecke University:

First aid material

First aid kits and, in some cases, band-aid dispensers can be found at designated locations on all university campuses.

First aiders at UWH

Please refer to the notices in the first aid kit area for the names of first aiders.

What do I have to do in case of an accident?

• Keep calm!
• Notify the first aider
• Secure the accident site
• Pay attention to your own safety
• If necessary, rescue the person from the danger zone
• If necessary, make an emergency call (0-112).

Further information on first aid can also be found in the employers' liability insurance association's information leaflet 204-022:

Accident report/bandage book entry

Always report all injuries immediately and enter them in the first-aid book, even if they seem harmless at first. This will safeguard your claims in the event of subsequent illnesses!

For more information, see "Accidents at work and on the way to work".

Accident at work - What to do?

Occupational accidents are accidents that you suffer as an employee:in the course of your work or on business trips. The decisive factor is that the activity serves the company and not private purposes.

If the injury requires further medical treatment, an ambulance or patient transport vehicle should be requested (tel. 0-112). The Post/Info shall be notified of the location of the injured person so that emergency personnel can be appropriately directed. Under no circumstances are injured persons to be transported in private vehicles to the doctor or hospital. An accident insurance physician must be involved in the treatment. The accident insurance physicians have special knowledge in the treatment of severely injured persons. Special requirements are placed on their practice facilities and staff by the accident insurers. The attending physician must be expressly informed that the injury is an occupational accident.

In any case - even if the injuries do not make a visit to the doctor appear necessary - immediate notification and entry in the first-aid book is necessary. This will safeguard your claims in the event of subsequent illnesses!

To report an accident, please use the form "Accident report/logbook entry", which you will also find in the first-aid boxes or can obtain at the post office/information desk:

The supervisor, as the person responsible for necessary occupational safety measures, must take note of the accident report and sign it. Please send the completed accident report to the company physician immediately by e-mail to betriebsarzt@spam protectuni-wh.de and also by internal mail. The company physician will inform the Human Resources Department if an accident report to the Employer's Liability Insurance Association is required. The Human Resources Department will make the necessary arrangements.

Students please report an accident immediately to the Student Secretariat using the following accident report:

Commuting accident

Commuting accidents are accidents that the insured person suffers on the direct route between his/her home and the place of work. The outward and return journey is between the outer door of the home and the entrance to the company premises.

The direct route is not synonymous with the shortest route; it may also be the longer route with better transport connections. Detours that become necessary due to the insured activity (e.g. travel to childcare) are also covered by the insurance.

Furthermore, this includes so-called work-related accidents, i.e. the routes required for the performance of the activity.

No insurance cover exists if the route to work is left for personal reasons (e.g. for shopping or refueling).

Hospitals approved by the Employer's Liability Insurance Association and transit doctors

The following transit doctors approved by the Employer's Liability Insurance Association are responsible for Witten/Herdecke University:

Chief Physician Dr. med. Michael Luka Chief Physician of the Trauma Surgery Department. Evangelical Hospital Pferdebachstraße 27 58455 Witten Phone: 02302 / 175-0

OA Prof. Dr. med. Jochen Hubertus Senior Physician for the Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery Department Marien-Hospital Marienplatz 2 58452 Witten Phone: 02302 / 173-0

You can find further transit physicians via this page of the DGUV:

http://lviweb.dguv.de/faces/D

Accident insurance institution for employees

The responsible accident insurance institution for the employees of Witten/Herdecke University is the Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft (VBG):

VBG - Bezirksverwaltung Bergisch Gladbach Kölner Straße 20 51429 Bergisch Gladbach Phone: 02204 407-0 Fax: 02204 1639

If you have any questions regarding occupational health and safety, you can also contact the Employer's Liability Insurance Association directly at 02204 407-222 (Prevention Department).

Accident insurance institution for students

The responsible accident insurance institution for students at Witten/Herdecke University is the Landesunfallkasse NRW (LUK):

Landesunfallkasse North Rhine-Westphalia

Moskauer Straße 18 40223 Düsseldorf Phone: 02 11/9024-0 Fax: 02 11/9024-1355

The office workplace is characterized by the great importance of data processing; the computer is the most important work tool in office workplaces. For this reason, the legislator has issued a separate ordinance for this purpose, the VDU Workplace Ordinance. This is intended to ensure that the new hazards at the office workplace caused by the use of computers are taken into account and that employees are protected from damage to their health.

Occupational health care for employees working at computer workstations

The UW/H offers its employees the opportunity to take part in regular occupational medical check-upswhen working at computer workstations. The offer of such a check-up is required every three years in accordance with the Occupational Health Precaution Ordinance (ArbmedVV).

Neither acceptance nor refusal of participation will result in any disadvantages for you. The preventive medical check-up is performed and documented by the responsible company physician at UW/H. Of course, the company physician is subject to medical confidentiality. If you would like to accept the offer, please contact the company physician at betriebsarzt@spam protectuni-wh.de or call 02302/926-679 to make an appointment and bring your visual aid, if you already have one, with you to the examination.

The ergonomic computer workstation

Due to the sometimes strong fixation on computer work, ergonomic design is particularly important to ensure that office workplaces are safe and harmless to employees' health.

We would like to provide you with assistance in setting up office workplaces in general and computer workstations in particular in an ergonomically sensible manner. Closely linked to this are suggestions for improving behavior at work in order to meet the needs of the body. Only if the conditions (the ergonomic equipment) and the behavior together result in a functioning whole, health hazards can be excluded as far as possible.

You can find information on ergonomic equipment here:

For your physical fitness at work, we suggest the following simple exercises: