The COVID-19 pandemic provided political momentum for social and legal change in occupational health in slaughterhouses in Germany. After years of unsuccessful scandalisation over the precarious working conditions in slaughterhouses, a comprehensive legislative framework was introduced in 2020: the Federal Occupational Health and Safety Control Act ( ). This article traces the political and legal events leading to the enactment of this legislation, contributing to a wider empirical debate about the interaction of civil society and democratic institutions. Methodologically, we combine a legal analysis of the legislative process with a political science analysis of the participation of civil society actors, mainly labour unions. Theoretically, we explore how civil society actors translated the content of political claims into legal arguments through the lens of disciplinary translations and knowledge translation. The results of our study highlight the importance of translations as a hermeneutic concept for bringing about legal changes.