The pharmaceutical company Bayer wants to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide after the billionaire Monsanto acquisition. Germany is particularly affected.
The Leverkusen-based pharmaceutical and agricultural corporation Bayer wants to reduce its global workforce by 12,000 jobs by the end of 2021 – many of them in Germany. The largest part of the job cuts will be attributable to the crop protection business and to the overall corporate functions, the company said on Thursday in Leverkusen. At the same time, Bayer agreed with the Works Council in Germany a program for the future, which will fundamentally rule out redundancies in the workforce of Bayer AG in Germany until the end of 2025.
The efficiency and structural measures are designed to increase the Dax Group’s competitiveness and to generate annual contributions of 2.6 billion euros, including the anticipated synergies from the Monsanto acquisition of 2022.
The workforce reduction is part of an efficiency enhancement program that aims to significantly increase productivity and earning power. Other items include the divestiture of the animal health business, the sale of the Coppertone and Drs. Scholl’s and the sale of the 60 percent stake in the chemical site service provider Currenta.
Bayer is currently struggling on several fronts. In the United States, following the acquisition of Monsanto, the group faces numerous claims for the herbicide glyphosate. The plaintiffs consider the remedy to be carcinogenic. Bayer resolutely rejects this accusation. But the Bayer stock collapsed after the first lost glyphosate process massively. Also in the important pharmaceutical business, the Leverkusen-based company had recently reported little promising new developments.
