What's in the template
Three working pages to post at the work location and one guidance sheet.
- A Job and validity
- B Work and protection method, with the reason when guardrails or nets are not possible
- C Twelve required controls: surfaces, ladders, scaffolds, lifts, openings, equipment, anchors, falling objects, weather, power lines and related permits
- D Personal fall protection: system, anchor points, clearance
- E Rescue: method, equipment at the work location, no one alone
- F Authorisation
- G Closeout
Pages 1 and 2 hold the permit, parts A to G; page 3 holds the fall-protection equipment and anchor check and the working-party list. The guidance sheet explains the steps, when a lighter document is enough, roles and rescue and, for each requirement, the German and the Swiss rule side by side; where a country has no rule of its own, the sheet says so. The form prints no fall height: the thresholds differ by country and are on the guidance sheet.
When do you need it?
No German or Swiss rule requires a permit for work at height, but both require the protection to be chosen and the rescue to be planned before the work starts. The permit records this for non-routine work: near an unprotected edge, opening, skylight or fragile roof, with restraint or fall arrest, or where a fall could reach machinery or water. Guardrails and nets come first; a harness only where they are not possible.
Rules it follows
Germany
- ArbSchG §8, coordination between employers
- ASR A2.1, protection against falls (as amended 2022)
- BetrSichV Annex 1 and TRBS 2121 with parts 1 (scaffolds) and 2 (ladders)
- DGUV Vorschrift 38, construction work, and DGUV Vorschrift 3, electrical installations and equipment
- DGUV Regel 112-198, fall-protection equipment, and DGUV Regel 112-199, rescue (July 2022)
- DGUV Information 208-019, mobile elevating work platforms, and DGUV Grundsatz 308-008, operator training
Switzerland
- VUV, ordinance on accident prevention, Art. 5, 6, 8, 9, 21, 32a and 32b
- EKAS guide to safety at work, on VUV Art. 21 (fall heights for barriers and railings)
- BauAV, construction work ordinance (status 1 January 2024)
- Suva 44002, safety with rope protection (October 2025), Suva 84044 and checklist 67064/2
All checked against the current editions on 15 October 2026.