Iris Schäfer, EASI Control customer service at NordBau 2023: "Avoiding up to 30.000.00€ or even imprisonment by complying with occupational health and safety measures"

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Aleksandra Jastrzab: Ms. Schäfer, as a start-up company, what do you think about trade fairs, do you prefer to meet your customers in person or virtually?

Iris Schäfer: I much prefer to meet my customers in person. That's where emotions can be transferred much better and you can have conversations much more intensively. You can also get to know the other person better and understand what is really important to them. These are simply things that can't come across in a virtual conversation.

AJ: What can the neglect of occupational safety and health cause in a company?

IS: Neglecting occupational safety and health has many consequences. Among them, of course, are workers who may suffer fatal accidents or injuries. But apart from that, there are also material consequences. Employers can be held liable, as can managers and chairpersons in the relevant positions, even though it is a matter of occupational health and safety. Penalties of up to €30,000.00 can be imposed, or even imprisonment for up to one year. Thank goodness this is not the rule, but the exception, and employers must deliberately say that we are now completely disregarding everything and are not abiding by the rules to deserve a punishment this harsh.

AJ: In which workplaces is occupational safety most important?

IS: Well, one can't say that it's particularly important at workplaces, in every field of work and in every company, occupational safety is exactly equally important. All employees should be able to work safely, have a safe working environment. However, it can be said that there are industries, such as construction, where there are higher risks, where more important occupational safety measures have to be taken, or simply more occupational safety measures have to be taken. If you talk about importance in this sense, you can say that there is a special focus on it. But the legislator makes no distinction between the different working environments.

AJ: What would you like to achieve at NordBau 2023?

IS: At NordBau 2023, it would be great if we could simply get to exchange information, especially with the companies that have to apply occupational health and safety. To get to know the challenge even better, we have already overcome many challenges with our app, so we already have a solution for very many things, but of course we can also get better. It is simply important to us that the companies can tell us where their challenges lie and where they are trying to gain a foothold, but that doesn't really work yet, they don't have a real solution yet. That we can then simply state for ourselves, okay, we already have a solution for exactly this area, or great that we now know, we would be super happy to include that with us, because it simply fits the world of occupational health and safety. So that ultimately, we have the right solution for every construction company or in general for every company out there.

AJ: Thank you very much for your time today.

IS: Thank you as well.

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