Key facts
In Switzerland, Suva, the cantonal labour inspectorates, the Federal Labour Inspectorate and specialist organisations work in the area of preventing occupational disease and accidents. Among other things, these implementing bodies are responsible for ensuring that employers take the measures prescribed by the Accident Insurance Act (AIA) and its implementing ordinance. The Federal Coordination Commission for Occupational Safety (FCOS) is charged with coordinating the areas of responsibility and tasks of these implementing bodies. For this purpose, the FCOS enters into agreements and defines service catalogues with the bodies concerned. The annual financial volume of the agreed services is around CHF 123 million. Funding is provided by occupational disease and accident insurance premium supplements paid by employers to Suva and private insurers. The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) examined whether the FCOS adequately monitors the implementation of service level agreements.
The SFAO concluded that there are shortcomings in the service level agreements and in the monitoring procedure applied by the FCOS. Due to the absence of qualitative requirements concerning the intervention strategy of the implementing bodies and of corrective measures in the event of failure on their part, efficient and effective use of the allocated resources cannot be ensured.