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| Ongoing health protection - Wilkhahn achieves five consecutive successes with AOK bonus project [05-21-2002] Bad Münder, Germany. For the fifth time the Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (AOK, Health Insurance Fund) awarded a certificate to Wilkhahn for its application for the annual bonus of the “Health Insurance Fund of Lower Saxony” . This certificate marks the AOK’s recognition of its intensive collaboration with the furniture manufacturer in Bad Münder-Eimbeckhausen, and the company’s extraordinary achievements in the field of health protection at the workplace. The process of successful health care and protection, which equally benefits the company itself, its employees and the AOK, was also documented in graphic terms for the public in the EXPO 2000 project “The future of work in the field between humankind, nature, technology and the market – Wilkhahn’s experience” two years ago. The concept of the AOK Lower Saxony for health protection in the work environment is a trendsetting project aimed at reducing health-related costs. The idea is simple and it also makes sense: companies which participate in a comprehensive analysis of health care and protection at their premises, which derive measures to improve health protection from the results of such an analysis and implement the same, receive a contributions bonus which is divided up equally between contributions made by employers and employees. Everyone involved benefits from this scheme: the company, as it is able to reduce nonwage labour costs which, in turn, means less time lost due to sickness; the individual employee, who has more left in his/her wage packet and whose - invaluable - health is thus protected; and last but not least, the German health insurance funds who achieve a reduction of cost-intensive long-term treatment of occupational diseases. The AOK and Wilkhahn do not therefore restrict their health care and protection in the plant to individual, measurable influences such as noise, heat, dust or hazardous substances. Questions related to management style, internal organization climate, and possibilities for employees’ codetermination of work process are also scrutinized in line with the motto that health care provisions are always more advisable than costly “corrective measures”. This operating procedure is intended to maintain satisfaction, quality of life and willingness to achieve on the part of employees. The collaboration between the AOK and Wilkhahn dates back to the eighties. Joint events were held in 1994 and 1995 to provide information for Wilkhahn employees on the importance of health care and protection. This collaboration continued in the form of health group meetings, and a back-related exercise programme and seminars for giving up smoking and reducing stress were available to all staff. This was followed by a decision by Management and Works Council to work consistently on the health situation at Wilkhahn. On 11 July 1997 a cooperation agreement came into force which stipulated far-reaching measures for the promotion of health, with the aim of achieving a substantial contribution to cost reduction and a reduction of AOK contributions by one twelfth as a reward for such achievements. The application for the contributions bonus was preceded by intensive consultations between Management, Works Council, the company doctor and employees. Employees were asked for their opinion, there was an inspection tour of the company, a steering committee was set up, and a project leader and a project team were appointed. In its initial application in February 1998 Wilkhahn was able to list a large number of activities and successes with regard to this project. Wilkhahn was first awarded a contributions bonus from the AOK on 1 March 1998 following an independent expertise of the Institut für Technologie und Arbeit (Institute for Technology and Work) at the University of Kaiserslautern. Since then, Wilkhahn has applied for this bonus every year by presenting its measures and successes in the field of health care and protection in the form of an extensive health report. May 2002
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