Have you considered your responsibility for the work environment?

Many AAU employees – including those without managerial duties – are tasked with ensuring safe working conditions for other staff and students on behalf of AAU.

For example, many supervisors are responsible for checking students’ planned safety measures when working with hazardous laboratory tasks. It is, of course, important that this control task is carried out carefully. But what if something still goes wrong due to safety deficiencies – and a student gets injured? Can the supervisor then be held liable?

This and other examples are addressed in a new guide prepared by the Working Environment Section at the request of the Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee (HAMiU).

You can find the guide on the website along with a “quick reference” version in the form of an overview table: Roles and responsibilities in the working environment

If you have questions about the guide – or are unsure about your own responsibilities – please contact the Working Environment Section: arbejdsmiljoesektion@adm.aau.dk

All work must, according to occupational health and safety legislation, as far as possible be carried out either sitting or standing, whereas work lying down, kneeling, or squatting should be avoided.

For seated work, a chair is of course a necessary work tool – and at the same time of great importance for the ergonomic work environment.

Work chairs come in countless versions, and it can be difficult to get an overview of which requirements chairs must meet to ensure a safe working environment in a given work situation.

Therefore, the Working Environment Section prepared a professional, schematic guide for internal use a few years ago – and we have now chosen to make this guide public.

Find the guide on the website: Requirements for work chairs

Please note that the guide only covers movable chairs used by employees – and not, for example, benches or fixed seats in auditoriums. Furthermore, the guide has only limited validity for chairs intended for employees with special needs, e.g., due to physical disabilities.

Remember: before purchasing chairs, contact CAS’s furniture team or the Working Environment Section for advice and guidance. The furniture team is working together with the Working Environment Section to prepare an overview of recommended office chairs.

The Finance and Account Department at AAU has entered into a new purchasing agreement for work clothing and protective footwear.

The agreement has been made with Carl Ras, which has stores in several locations across the country, including Aalborg, South Harbor in Copenhagen, and Esbjerg. The previous agreement with Stark has therefore expired.

Find the workwear purchasing agreement here (in Danish only).

Note: This agreement should not be confused with the agreement for purchasing laboratory gloves.

As part of the workwear agreement, it has also been agreed that students can receive a 25 % discount upon presenting their AAU card when, for example, they need to purchase safety shoes or a helmet for workshop work or fieldwork at AAU.

The Working Environment Section's guidance on protective footwear and helmets can be found here: Personal Protective Equipment.

Get introduced to new materials on Occupational Health and Safety

Every year, BFA Industry invites everyone to join a roadshow where they present the latest guidelines and other materials on workplace safety. This is more relevant now than ever, as the Danish Working Environment Authority has recently made significant cuts to its own guidelines.

BFA Industry is 1 of 5 Sektor Councils on Working Environment. These are established in accordance part 3 of the Working Environment Act and are as advisory organs primarily finansed by the state of Denmark.  

Although BFA Industry naturally focuses on manufacturing companies, many of their guidelines are also relevant for a university setting.

The roadshow will be held at several locations across the country in January and February, including Aalborg, Esbjerg, and the Copenhagen area. The event lasts about 3 hours and participation is free of charge.

Read more about the event and register here (link to website in Danish): Working Environment Roadshow 2026

As announced in a newsletter in 2024 we have now launched 2 new websites in English:

• www.workenvironment.aau.dk (this site)
• www.preparedness.aau.dk

We hope our English-speaking colleagues will find the new pages helpful.

We welcome your input if there is content you would like to see on the sites. 
Write to us at arbejdsmiljoesektion@adm.aau.dk.

Following the AMR election, two sessions of the mandatory health and safety course at AAU have currently been scheduled.

See more on Plan2Learn (course description in Danish). Both the health and safety representatives (AMR) and the managers (AL) are required to complete the course.

So, if you need the training, sign up quickly while there are still spots available.
For those unable to attend or in need of English-language courses, alternatives must be arranged.
Please write to us at arbejdsmiljoesektion@adm.aau.dk so we can assess the need.

Also write to us if you have suggestions for supplementary occupational health and safety training.

As you hopefully know, everyone – both AMR and AL – is entitled to supplementary training during their term of office. It is often best and cheapest to organize training at AAU ourselves, so we are happy to do so if possible.

As you may know, AAU is consolidating more people into existing rooms to better utilize space. While this can be done without major issues, it may feel like a significant change for those used to having private offices.

We at the Working Environment Section have pointed out that there are limits to how many workstations can be placed in existing office spaces, such as shared offices.
These limits are often tied to the capacity of the ventilation system. If the number of people exceeds what the room is ventilated for, it can negatively impact indoor air quality in an unsafe way.

There are also physical limits to how closely people can be seated while still allowing safe movement and sufficient workspace.

There are basic occupational health and safety requirements for spaciousness at the workplace, but until now, it has been somewhat technical to determine what this means in practice—such as the required desk surface area in an office.
This is further complicated by the wide variety of tasks performed at AAU office workstations, which naturally affects space needs.

The Working Environment Section have made a professional assessment, and you can now find a simple schematic guide on the website regarding desk size requirements. Use this guide as a reference when setting up your workspaces.
Find the guide on the website: Desk size requirements.

Reminder: Before purchasing desks, please contact CAS’s furniture team or the Working Environment Section for advice and guidance.

The Danish Center for the Educational Environment (DCUM) will close on 1 July 2025.

A number of DCUM's tasks will then be taken over by the Danish Agency for Education and Quality (STUK). This includes guidance on the educational environment.

The formal supervision of the educational environment will cease, but STUK will more generally monitor how the educational environment legislation is administered.

At the time of writing, it has not been clarified how the accessibility of DCUM's materials will be in the future.