Building work around people - 350 people with disabilities work in Schönbrunner workshops
Created: 04/12/2022, 19:35
“I really enjoy coming to work”: Georg Geier at his workplace.
© Katia Meyer-Tien
Around 350 people with disabilities work in the Schönbrunn workshops.
It's only marginally about making money.
A contribution to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd.
Schönbrunn – With a pair of tweezers, Tanja Kornprobst lifts the tiny piece of Velcro and places it accurately in the middle of the small piece of metal in front of her.
Then she puts the metal part in a box, takes the next one, puts it in front of her, grabbing the tweezers again.
About 500 times in half a day.
"It's fun when I can work at my own pace," says Kornprobst.
The parts will later be installed in a truck.
Tanja Kornprobst has been working in the textile production of the workshops in Schönbrunn for more than twelve years.
The name "textile production" is misleading, only a small proportion of the workplaces work with textiles.
Instead, glued, screwed and packed.
It is one of ten workshops of the Schönbrunner Franziskuswerk, there are around 350 jobs for people with disabilities here.
The right workplace for everyone
Finding a job for every employee that suits them: That is one of the main tasks of the Schönbrunner workshops, says Jürgen Braun, head of the Work and Promotion division, as he continues to guide us through the rooms.
Printing shop, wood workshop, metal processing: Even if the individual work steps are kept as simple as possible, the products that are made in the Schönbrunn workshops meet the highest quality standards.
Here they produce parts for automobile production, engraved business cards, vertical blinds for refrigerated trucks, solid wood garden furniture: the portfolio is huge.
This is also made possible by a very special department: fixture construction.
If it is too difficult for an employee to position a part exactly, to hold it or to attach it, then they think of a suitable tool and build it.
In this way, every workplace is made to fit.
"Building work around people," they call it here.
This is how they manage to get most of them to work in a highly motivated manner.
Like 64-year-old Georg Geier, who has been working in contract manufacturing since 2018 and checks plastic flaps for the ventilation of mobile homes.
With his index finger, he carefully feels whether a burr is sticking out, and if so, he grabs the tool.
He gets up every morning at half past four and takes the S-Bahn from his residential group in Petershausen to Röhrmoos. His working day lasts from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
Employees don't get rich.
The average wage is 173 euros a month, with a maximum of 400 euros.
A remuneration that is repeatedly criticized.
Across Germany, around 320,000 people with disabilities work in workshops without being entitled to minimum wage.
The workshops are obliged to distribute 70 percent of the work result to the employees, but it is and remains a balancing act.
Because the workshops need orders in order to be able to offer jobs, and they have to offer competitive prices in return.
At the same time, the work steps in the workshops are fragmented and the employees work at their own pace.
And for an average of twelve employees with disabilities, there is one specialist with additional special education training,
be part and participate
Division manager Jürgen Braun naturally follows the debate about pay in the workshops.
But for him it misses a bit of what counts: to convey to every employee that they can do something.
And, if possible, continue to develop competencies.
Whether it's the exact folding of greeting cards, driving a forklift or planing a garden bench.
"It's fun when I can work at my own pace," says Tanja Kornprobst.
© Katia Meyer-Tien
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For some, the goal can then be an outdoor workplace, in the supermarket, in a canteen kitchen, in a kindergarten.
Then, of course, with appropriate remuneration if possible: “Our employees there do an excellent job, which is often indispensable for the companies and is of equal value compared to other employees, and they should also be paid appropriately for it,” says Braun.
Just as important as fair pay is the feeling of being a part of something for everyone here.
In the corridors there are posters from workshop groups' excursions, sometimes they drive into the companies to see where their parts are installed.
"Participation" is what the legislature calls it, which even prescribes that every person with a disability "should be able to achieve the greatest possible participation in working life according to their individual capabilities through tailor-made services and support".
Georg Geier doesn't call it participation.
He puts it: "I really enjoy coming to work." After his retirement next year, he definitely wants to continue working: then as a postman in Schönbrunn.
Schönbrunn in transition
In a series, the Dachauer Nachrichten looks at the path from the "Schönbrunn Institution" to the care, support and support facility that the Franziskuswerk is today.
Katia Meyer-Tien
