Bayer eliminates 12,000 jobs – Wiener Zeitung Online

Leverkusen. By the end of 2021, German pharmaceutical and agrochemical group Bayer wants to reduce its global workforce by about 12,000 jobs – most in Germany. Most of the job cuts will be attributable to Crop Protection and all of the company's functions, the company said in Leverkusen on Thursday.

At the same time, Bayer agreed with the company committee in Germany a program for the future, which will exclude layoffs on Bayer AG staff in Germany until the end from 2025.

The structural and efficiency measures aim to increase the group's competitiveness and, including the synergies expected from Monsanto's takeover in 2022, represent an annual contribution of 2.6 billion euros.

Fight on many fronts

The reduction of the workforce is part of an efficiency improvement program designed to significantly increase productivity and profitability. Other items include the sale of the animal health business, the sale of Coppertone and Drs. Scholl's and the sale of the 60% stake in the German site chemical service provider Currenta.

Bayer is currently fighting on several fronts. In the United States, following the Monsanto acquisition, the group faces numerous claims for glyphosate herbicide. The plaintiffs accuse Monsanto's American company, acquired by Bayer, of selling a carcinogen containing glyphosate and of not being sufficiently informed of the harmfulness. Bayer resolutely rejects these allegations. But Bayer's action has collapsed after the first glyphosate loss process mbadively. The group also recently announced new unsuccessful developments in its important pharmaceutical business.

Bayer Austria GmbH, based in Vienna-Ottakring, employs around 230 people, according to the journal Compbad. Last year, a turnover of 205 million euros was realized. The ordinary business result (EGT) in 2017 was about 10 million euros. That there are effects on the Austrian site has remained open for the moment.

According to the company's home page, employees in Austria are responsible for marketing, sales, technical and medical advice for Bayer products, as well as clinical studies. Since 2009, the control of the group of countries of South-East Europe has been carried out from Vienna. In addition to Austria, this includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

The company employs around 100,000 people worldwide.