Siemens is to shed 15,000 jobs over the next year, a third of them in Germany, as part of a 6 billion euro ($8.1 billion) cost cutting program, a spokesman said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes two months after the ouster of Chief Executive Peter Loescher who drew up the savings plan late last year.<\/p>\n
Europe’s biggest engineering firm, whose products range from hearing aids to gas turbines, is anxious to close the gap with more profitable rivals such as U.S.-based General Electric Co and Switzerland’s ABB.<\/p>\n
Siemens and its unions have reached an agreement over about half of the job cuts and a deal on the other half will follow, the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
He added that Siemens wanted to end speculation in the market about the number of jobs that are about to be cut.<\/p>\n
No workers have been laid off so far and Siemens has said it does not intend to make enforced redundancies, relying instead on attrition and voluntary severance deals.<\/p>\n
In Germany, about 2,000 jobs will be cut at the company’s industrial unit and another 1,400 at its energy and infrastructure business, the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Siemens expects to close the current fiscal year on Monday with around 370,000 workers, the same as last year. ($1 = 0.7385 euros)<\/p>\n
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