Zerlegung des Arbeitsschutzes in der Fleischindustrie durch Werkverträge – und die Notwendigkeit integrativen Arbeitsschutzes

The devastating working conditions in the meat industry have not only been known since the Corona pandemic, but this spring slaughterhouses in particular proved to be hotspots of the Sars-CoV-2 spread. In the summer of this year, the Federal Government presented a draft for an occupational health and safety control law. Among other things, the bill provides for a ban on the use of contracts to produce a work (Werkverträge) and temporary agency work in the core area of the meat industry from 1 January and 1 April 2021 respectively. This article traces the omissions of recent years and shows why, in third-party employment constellations, the important inter-company cooperation in occupational health and safety cannot represent a model for success in the meat industry, since in the meat industry the contracting companies are neither able nor willing to assert themselves with regard to occupational health and safety. The article highlights why the proprietor’s organisational obligations are crucial for compliance with national and EU occupational health and safety law as well as food hygiene regulations, and must ultimately be monitored by the occupational health and safety inspectorates. The contribution supports the objectives of the bill, but at the time of the editorial deadline (16.11.2020) it is still uncertain whether the Bundestag will pass the law without substantial deterioration.