The articles occupational safety and health and safety at work overlap thematically. Information that you are looking for here may also be found in the other article.
You are welcome to participate in the relevant redundancy discussion or directly help to merge the articles or to better distinguish them from each other (→ Instructions).
Occupational health and safety or employee protection is understood to mean the measures, means and methods for protecting employees from work-related safety and health hazards. The aim is to prevent accidents at work and to protect the health of employees.
The term "employee" is deliberately defined broadly in the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It includes all persons who are actually employed by another (natural or legal) person within the framework of an organisation. This includes in particular employees, but also civil servants, soldiers and judges; trainees, retrainees, interns, volunteers; postulants and novices; pupils and students; employees in a workshop for disabled people; persons similar to employees; helpers within the framework of a voluntary year, e.g. FSJ or FÖJ; church employees including monks, nuns, deaconesses; activities within the framework of occupational therapy; prisoners; volunteers of e.g. volunteer fire brigades or aid organisations. Employees within the meaning of the Occupational Safety and Health Act expressly do not include domestic workers in private households and conditionally employed persons on seagoing vessels and in companies subject to the Federal Mining Act.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act is the "controlling law" for the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
In the German-speaking countries, different, but largely synonymous, terms are sometimes used for the term "occupational safety and health", which is commonly used in Germany. The most common synonyms are "safety and health at work" and "occupational health and safety". In Austria the term "Arbeitnehmerschutz" or "ArbeitnehmerInnenschutz" is commonly used, in Switzerland the terms "Arbeitssicherheit" and "Gesundheitsschutz". The different terms depend in part on the namely different legal bases.
Historically, the term industrial hygiene was also used for occupational health and safety.
A distinction must be made between occupational safety (accident prevention) and |job safety, i.e. protection against loss of employment (unemployment).