Occupational safety and health

State Secretary Björn Böhning welcomes workplace safety delegation from Tanzania

State Secretary Björn Böhning welcomed a delegation from Tanzania headed by Eric Shitindi, the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office for Labour, Youth, Employment and Disabilities, at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. This was the delegation’s first stop during its five-day trip to Germany. The talks focused on workplace safety and the establishment of accident insurance schemes.

State Secretary Böhning stressed the importance of workplace safety for a functioning employment system. He explained that designing workplaces in a way to protect the safety and health of workers was in the interest of workers and also paid off for businesses thanks to greater motivation at work and fewer absence periods. He added that the key point was close cooperation between government, trade unions and businesses, including efforts to continuously adapt workplace safety to new workplace developments such as digitalisation.

With support from the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Tanzanian government set up a Workers Compensation Fund (WCF) in June 2015, enabling approximately 2 million workers to access benefits compensating them for accidents at work. Tanzania is a member of the East and Central Africa Social Security Association (ECASSA), which has been a partner of the German Statutory Accident Insurance Fund (DGUV) since 2017. The delegation’s trip to Germany takes place in the context of this partnership.