Siemens Set To Cut 15,000 Jobs In Cost Cutting Drive

Engineering giant Siemens plans to cut 15,000 jobs, or four percent of its global workforce, as part of a €6 billion cost cutting plan.

Around a third of the jobs lost will be in its native Germany, with another 10,000 abroad. There is no indication as to which departments will be affected apart from that 2,000 will be cut at the firm’s industrial unit and 1,400 at its energy and infrastructure division.

Siemens says its unions have reached an agreement about half of the job cuts and is confident another deal covering the rest will be agreed soon.

Siemens jobs

No employees have been laid off so far, and Siemens says it does not intend to make forced redundancies, instead relying on voluntary severance packages. It says it is announcing the scale of the programme now in order to end speculation about just how many positions will be affected.

The plan to reduce costs was initiated by former CEO Peter Loescher, who himself was ousted from his role earlier this year due to falling profits at the firm.

In July, Siemens sold its 50 percent stake in the Nokia-Siemens telecoms equipment joint-venture to its Finnish partner for £1.5 billion. Siemens said it disposed of its share of the business, which was formed in April 2007 and has helped to deploy mobile networks in more than 150 countries, because it wanted to focus on its other business.

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