Proactive integration as practiced at ThyssenKrupp

The integration of the disabled is being proactively practiced at ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems, a company belonging to the Materials Services Business Area of ThyssenKrupp. The expert in steel mill services employs some 180 severely disabled persons, equivalent to just under ten percent of the workforce and well above the statutory requirement of five percent.

"A disability is officially recognized as being severe and the person is legally entitled to compensation if it means at least 50 percent physical, mental and/or emotional impairment. It may be the result of sickness or accident. In such instances, we take individual action to make sure the employee keeps their job or is assigned a new one," says Joachim Schmidt, responsible for the severely disabled at ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems. Worked out in close cooperation with the municipal association Landschaftsverband-Rheinland (LVR), the measures adopted are varied. "It all depends on the degree of disability. In the past these have ranged from individual solutions for operating motor vehicles, special lifting gear and elevators to applications and equipment designed to cope with specific disabilities. In our efforts we do, of course, rely on the participation of the person concerned," says Schmidt.

ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems' representatives for the severely disabled were particularly successful over the past years as part of the Integration Undertaking initiative organized by Landschaftsverband-Rheinland and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This included hiring 25 jobless, severely disabled persons who were assigned responsibility for such work as street and motor vehicle cleaning as well as organizing supplies for the employees at the ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe locations at Beeckerwerth and at Hüttenwerken Krupp Mannesmann Duisburg-Huckingen. For the intense efforts and successful integration, Oberhausen-based ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems was rated "disabled friendly" by LVR.

Yet another success story is the longstanding cooperation with Haus Freudenberg GmbH where disabled persons are rehabilitated, cared for, and given work. On behalf of ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems, Haus Freudenberg makes disposable pallets, edge protection rings, and other packaging materials in wood. The production shops are a perfect example of proactive integration where over 20 employees, some disabled, some not, work together under one roof.