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December 2004
Dräger Medical – Decision in favour of Lübeck / Implementation of the agreement with employees and the promises made by city and state are important prerequisites
Lübeck, 16 December 2004 – As announced by Drägerwerk AG, Lübeck, following today's meeting of the Drägerwerk AG Supervisory Board, the headquarters and production facilities of the Dräger Medical subgroup will remain in Lübeck. As previously reported, an agreement was reached with the employees on 14 December concerning a package of essential measures to make working hours more flexible and increase productivity. Specifically, the following points were agreed:
    Savings:
  • Postponement of the cost component from the new pay framework agreement (Entgeltrahmen-Tarifvertrag or ERA) which is intended to do away with the distinction between blue- and white-collar workers
  • Adjustment of Christmas and holiday pay in situations of economic crisis
    Greater flexibility:
  • New company opening hours (Monday to Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.)
  • Option of recruiting qualified personnel, offering conditions that reflect contemporary market practices, i.e. 40-hour contracts with commensurate pay, and performance-related rather than time-based pay
  • Up to 25 percent loan workers and staff on temporary contracts
    Corporate culture:
  • New, fully documented employee feedback meeting to assess performance and agree on need for qualifications
Dräger Medical will continue to expand its social commitment by promising to increase its apprenticeship quota by approx. 50 percent, from approx. 3 percent to 4.5 percent. In addition, a long-term site guarantee was agreed. The decision in favour of Lübeck was also positively influenced by the promises made by the Hanseatic City of Lübeck to improve the local infrastructure, and the willingness of the state government to make available additional subsidies to supplement Dräger Medical's investments of over 50 million euros.
Dr Wolfgang Reim, Dräger Medical CEO: "We have achieved our three key objectives: to strengthen the competitiveness of Dräger Medical, to save jobs in Germany, especially in Lübeck, and to face up to our social responsibility towards our staff and their families. There are now no further obstacles on the path to establishing, by 2008 at the latest, a new knowledge-oriented company headquarters and a flexible production facility in Lübeck. Naturally, this requires the speedy and consistent implementation of the agreements reached with employees, the City of Lübeck and the State of Schleswig-Holstein. As a result, Dräger Medical will also help attract other technology companies to the Lübeck region.“
For Theo Dräger, Chairman of the Drägerwerk AG Executive Board, the decision reached by the Drägerwerk AG Supervisory Board in favour of the Lübeck site is good news for everyone: for staff and their families, the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, the State of Schleswig-Holstein and Drägerwerk AG.

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Contact
Burkard Dillig
Spokesman
Phone +49 (0)451 882-2185
Fax +49 (0)451 882-3944
burkard.dillig@draeger.com