Bayer wants to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide

Pharmaceutical and agrochemical group based in Leverkusen, Bayer wants to reduce by the end of 2021 about 12,000 jobs worldwide, many of them 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.

Bayer's competitiveness must be increased

The structural and efficiency measures aim to increase the competitiveness of the Dax Group and generate an annual contribution of € 2.6 billion, including the synergies expected from the Monsanto acquisition in 2022.

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.

The Monsanto acquisition creates problems for the group

Bayer is currently fighting on several fronts. In the United States, following the Monsanto acquisition, the group is the subject of numerous claims regarding 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. In the pharmaceutical sector, too, the group had recently announced few promising new developments.