Re-integration of employees

Integration management is offered to all employees at Friedrich Schiller University Jena with the aim of ensuring and promoting their health and well-being.

Objectives

Integration management is an independent process comprising all activities, measures and services that might be necessary in certain cases to reintegrate employees after a long absence. The following objectives are pursued:

• Overcoming incapacity to work
• Preventing further incapacity to work
• Keeping employees in their job and preventing long-term incapacity to work

Application

The re-integration process is initiated when a university employee is continuously or repeatedly unable to work for longer than six weeks within one year.

This applies to anyone who is employed by the university.

However, participation in the re-integration process is voluntary for employees. You are free to decide whether to accept the support!

Responsibility

The Division for Human Resources at the University of Jena will take the initiative to initiate the re-integration process, even if you are yet to start working again.

Decision

We start the process by informing you about the integration process and its objective, the nature and scope of the data collected for this purpose and the involvement of any other persons.

This gives you the chance to make a conscious decision as to whether you would like to take part in the re-integration process.

Whatever is agreed during the re-integration process cannot be done without consulting you, as your consent or refusal will be obtained before the start of the re-integration process. You can also withdraw your consent with future effect during the re-integration process.

You should see the re-integration process as an opportunity that you can take with your department, but it is nevertheless an offer that you can accept or turn down.

In accordance with Section 167 (2) of Book IX of the German Social Security Code (Sozialgesetzbuch, SGB IX), employers are obliged to initiate a re-integration process.

Regulation on integration managementExternal link

Process

If the legal requirements are met, employees will receive a letter from the Division for Human Resources with an invitation to attend an initial consultation.

You can decide whether or not to take part in the integration management process, and you can choose the date and an ombudsperson for your appointment.

The initial consultation will allow you to discuss the process, explain your personal situation and clear up any questions you might have about the next steps in the integration management process.

If employees decide to continue the re-integration process, further internal and external specialists may be involved.

If job-related measures are considered, your departmental supervisors will also be involved. The outcome of the process will be recorded in an agreement, particularly the measures agreed together, and their implementation will be monitored by the integration team.

Difference between integration management and gradual re-integration

The gradual re-integration of employees, also known as the ‘Hamburg Model’, is a voluntary agreement made by the employee, employer, attending physician and health insurance company.

After being off work with an illness, employees are eased back in with more working hours every week. During this period, employees are still registered as unable to work.

Integration management focuses on the relationship between an employee’s working environment and their illness to ensure they can stay healthy when returning to their job. The gradual re-integration process can be combined with integration management.

Data protection

Each employee must consent to the implementation of the integration management process and the involvement of the Division for Human Resources, the Representative for Employees with Disabilities, the ombudsperson for employees with disabilities or any other third parties. Further information (e.g. written replies from the employees concerned) may only be disclosed to the Staff Representative Council, the Representative for Employees with Disabilities, the ombudsperson for employees with disabilities or other third parties with the consent of the employees concerned (see first sentence of Section 167 (2) SGB IX).