Instruction interval planner
Annually, every six months, every two years — the repeat intervals for mandatory staff instruction in Germany are spread across half a dozen different rules. Select what applies to your site and you get the relevant instructions with their interval, legal basis and first due date. Add the date of the last session and the planner works out when the next one falls due.
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Four instructions apply at virtually every employer and are always shown. Everything else depends on the activities — select as many as apply.
Applied to every instruction shown, which gives you a rough schedule. In practice each instruction carries its own date.
General occupational safety instruction
§ 12 ArbSchG · § 4(1) DGUV Vorschrift 1
- First session: on hiring and before work starts — plus whenever duties change or new work equipment or a new technology is introduced.
- It has to relate to the specific workplace and be given in a form and language the employees understand.
Fire safety and fire safety helpers
ASR A2.2 · DGUV Information 205-023
- First session: training before taking on the role. ASR A2.2 (the technical rule on measures against fires) gives 5 % of the workforce as the usual benchmark for fire safety helpers.
- The 3–5 years are a recommendation in DGUV Information 205-023, not a statutory deadline; sooner where operations change materially. Evacuation drills are separate and covered by ASR A2.3.
First aid — refresher for first-aiders
§ 26 DGUV Vorschrift 1
- First session: basic first-aid course before taking on the first-aider role.
- Once the two-year window has lapsed the basic course has to be taken again — a refresher no longer suffices.
Data protection
Art. 39(1)(b) · Art. 32 · Art. 5(2) GDPR
- First session: before processing activity starts, in practice during onboarding.
- The GDPR sets no deadline. The annual cycle is well-established practice and serves as evidence of accountability — a practical benchmark, not a legal deadline.
Regardless of the interval
- Event-driven instruction is due on top: on hiring and transfer, on new work equipment, substances or processes, on changed hazards, and after accidents and near misses.
- Instruction is not training: it is workplace-specific and must be given in a form and language the employees understand (§ 12 ArbSchG).
- Document the date, the content, who delivered it and who attended, with signatures — in a dispute the documentation is the actual evidence.
- Responsibility sits with the employer. Under § 13 ArbSchG it can be delegated but not shifted away: whoever delegates must still select, brief and supervise.
Section 12(1) ArbSchG (Arbeitsschutzgesetz, the German Occupational Safety and Health Act) requires the employer to instruct employees adequately and appropriately on safety and health at work — on hiring, on a change of duties, and on the introduction of new work equipment or new technology. The instruction must relate to the specific workplace or set of duties and be given in a form and language the employees understand. Section 4(1) DGUV Vorschrift 1 (the accident insurers' binding general prevention regulation) sets the interval: instruction must be repeated at least once a year and must be documented. Specific activities add stricter deadlines — for example § 14 GefStoffV (hazardous substances), § 14 BioStoffV (biological agents), § 29 JArbSchG (young workers) or § 43(4) IfSG (food handling). Under § 13 ArbSchG the employer may delegate the delivery to reliable and competent people; the responsibility itself stays with the employer.
Orientation only — not legal advice. Which instructions your site actually needs follows from your risk assessment under § 5 ArbSchG and may go further than the selection shown here, depending on sector and activity. Wherever an interval is not set by law, it is explicitly marked here as common practice rather than a statutory deadline.
Frequently asked
- What is the difference between 'Unterweisung' and general training?
- An Unterweisung under § 12 ArbSchG is workplace- and task-specific: it explains the concrete hazards of that job and the measures against them. General training conveys background knowledge and does not replace it. That is why a completed e-learning module alone is not enough if it does not reflect the hazards of the actual workplace — and the instruction must be given in a form and language the employees genuinely understand.
- How often is instruction required?
- General occupational safety instruction must be repeated at least once a year under § 4(1) DGUV Vorschrift 1, and at least every six months for young workers under § 29(2) JArbSchG (Jugendarbeitsschutzgesetz, the Young Persons Employment Act). Specific activities have their own deadlines: hazardous substances and biological agents annually (§ 14 GefStoffV, § 14 BioStoffV), first-aider refresher training every two years (§ 26(3) DGUV Vorschrift 1), and the food-handling briefing every two years (§ 43(4) IfSG). Event-driven instruction applies on top of the interval.
- When is additional event-driven instruction required?
- Whenever the hazard situation changes: on hiring, on transfer or a change of duties, on the introduction of new work equipment, substances or processes, after accidents and near misses, and after a longer absence. This instruction comes on top of the interval and does not reset it — the annual repeat is still due if the triggering event only covered part of the picture.
- How must instruction be documented?
- § 4(1) DGUV Vorschrift 1 requires the instruction to be documented. In practice that means: date, content or topics covered, name of the person delivering it, names of the participants and their signatures. In a dispute — an accident, an inspection, a recourse claim — this documentation is the actual evidence; instruction that took place but was not documented is in practice impossible to prove.
- Is there a statutory deadline for data protection training?
- No. The GDPR sets no interval. The duty to raise awareness and train staff involved in processing operations follows from Art. 39(1)(b) GDPR as a task of the data protection officer, and indirectly from Art. 32 GDPR (reliability of personnel) and Art. 5(2) GDPR (accountability). An annual cycle is well-established practice and serves as evidence of accountability — it is a practical benchmark, not a legal deadline.
- Can I delegate the instruction?
- The delivery yes, the responsibility no. Under § 13(2) ArbSchG the employer may appoint reliable and competent people in writing to carry out duties incumbent on the employer on their own responsibility. The employer's own duty remains: it can be delegated but not shifted away. Anyone who delegates must still select, brief and supervise.