{"id":26737,"date":"2025-07-15T11:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T09:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/?post_type=3questions&p=26737"},"modified":"2026-02-24T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:22:12","slug":"nrw-minister-of-labor-karl-josef-laumann","status":"publish","type":"3questions","link":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/press-and-media\/newsroom\/three-questions\/nrw-minister-of-labor-karl-josef-laumann\/","title":{"rendered":"NRW Minister of Labor Karl-Josef Laumann"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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    Your ministry has adopted the claim “With people for people”. If you apply this approach to employers, what values and measures do you place particular emphasis on?<\/h2>\n
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    For our ministry – and for me personally – our mission statement means serving the people of North Rhine-Westphalia.<\/p>\n

    Our goal is to shape a fair social policy and good social conditions. This is what drives us every day.<\/p>\n

    According to this mission statement and as a follower of Christian social teaching, I expect employers to ensure that their employees receive their fair share of company profits and can live well. Employees make economic success possible, they are entitled to stable and fairly remunerated employment and good working conditions. For me, these are the cornerstones of economic and social stability in our country.<\/p>\n

    I also believe that employee co-determination is essential. It is part of North Rhine-Westphalia’s DNA and I am convinced that when employees are involved in decisions, they feel valued and are more motivated to work towards common goals. Studies also clearly show that companies with active co-determination are more successful, innovative and resilient.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/li>\n

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    The REWE Group recently became the 500th company to sign the charter on \u201cReconciling Work and Care.\u201d This is an initiative launched by your organization in which companies, public authorities, and organizations commit to making a special effort to reconcile work and care, thereby also helping to secure a supply of skilled workers. This is an emotional and challenging topic. From your exchanges with other companies, which projects have particularly stuck in your mind? <\/h2>\n
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    First of all, I am very pleased with everything that is being implemented at the REWE Group. It was the first major retail company to commit to the North Rhine-Westphalia state program for reconciling work and care. This is particularly relevant given that two-thirds of employees are women, who bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities. The established REWE concept of life-phase-oriented self-help competence LoS! and the model of company care guides, which has proven itself within the framework of the state program, also provide low-threshold support for working people with private care responsibilities.<\/p>\n

    Looking at other companies, I particularly like it when medium-sized family businesses provide their employees with tangible help in filling out forms and contacting care insurance funds and service providers. This is a noticeable relief, especially for those who do not have an office job.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/li>\n

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    Another topic that is very close to your heart is that of inclusion. The “Joint Initiative to Strengthen Inclusion in the North Rhine-Westphalian Labor Market” was recently a guest of REWE merchant David Hegemann in Meerbusch. They were able to experience in practice how cooperation between companies and support systems can help people with disabilities into work and how REWE Region West is setting standards here with its own project. What did you take away from this visit and what are your hopes for the future?<\/h2>\n
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    The visit showed me once again how important successful cooperation between committed employers and support systems is: if everyone pulls together, real participation in working life can succeed. I was impressed by how inclusion is already being practiced as a matter of course. I met a young man who was the first trainee with a disability to start at REWE-Marktplatz Hegemann. Mr. Hegemann also told me that he uses the opportunity of a three-month trial employment for himself and his employees with disabilities through the employment agency. I believe this model strengthens inclusion in the labor market.<\/p>\n

    Especially in times of labor and skills shortages, we must not let the potential of people with disabilities go unused. While we have around 130,000 vacancies in North Rhine-Westphalia, 56,740 people with a severe disability were registered as unemployed in April. That cannot be right. That’s why we launched the inclusion initiative. Companies like REWE Hegemann show that with openness, motivation and the courage to break new ground, it is possible to break down reservations and overcome barriers. The cooperation with the Employment Agency, the Inclusion Office and other partners is an exemplary model of success – for many other companies in North Rhine-Westphalia.<\/p>\n

    I hope that inclusion in the workplace will become a matter of course and that we can motivate even more companies to follow this path. Our goal as a state is to work with our partners to further improve the framework conditions so that people with disabilities have the same opportunities in the labor market – and companies benefit from their diversity.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/li>\n <\/ul>\n\n

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    About:<\/h2>

    \n Karl-Josef Laumann <\/p>\n\n

    Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) has been Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017.<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Read more<\/h2>\n \n <\/div>\n
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      Story<\/p>\n

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      13 January 2026<\/p>\n

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      27 November 2025<\/p>\n

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      19 November 2025<\/p>\n

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      9 September 2025<\/p>\n

      Three questions withLudwig Theuvsen on the new federal government’s agricultural policy<\/span><\/h3> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/button>\n<\/div>\n <\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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      Join the discussion on <\/h2>\n
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      Our LinkedIn feed has all the latest information from the REWE Group and the sector, with the most important developments from the worlds of retail, e-commerce, food, CSR and policy.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

      \n \n To LinkedIn feed <\/a>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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      Whether it’s a better work-life balance or measures that promote inclusion and support the care of relatives: Karl-Josef Laumann, long-standing Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is driving these issues forward with great conviction and personal commitment – also in direct exchange with companies such as REWE Group. In our “Three questions with” format, he explains how he perceives REWE Group in these areas and to what extent such measures also counteract the labor shortage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":25074,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","nl_adhoc_sent":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"focus_theme":[143],"class_list":["post-26737","3questions","type-3questions","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","focus_theme-starke-gemeinschaft"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/3questions\/26737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/3questions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/3questions"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/3questions\/26737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27215,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/3questions\/26737\/revisions\/27215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26737"},{"taxonomy":"focus_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/focus_theme?post=26737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}