The Munich based Siemens which is the biggest engineering and technology company will be cutting as much as 3,800 jobs all over the world following its failure to attract a buyer for its unit called Siemens Enterprise Communications or SEN. The company confirmed the announcement of the job cuts on Tuesday at its Munich HQ. The proposed job cuts of Siemens in Germany alone will be 2,000. In addition to this job cut the company is also planning to cut down on its 3,000 workers in two ways, it will either sell its factories or can also enter into partnerships with companies. Among these proposed cuts, job cuts in Germany are expected to be 1,200. Siemens seems to be reshuffling the communications division so that it can woo a buyer and also avoid the repetition that afflicted its mobile unit.

By the time Siemens sold the unit to Benq of Taipei in 2006 it was suffering losses amounting to €1 million every day. The Taiwanese company also had to suffer from bankruptcy after it bought the company which resulted in great layoffs. The company told that it will begin negotiations with the representatives of the employees very soon and would attempt to come up with a social plan for the workers who would be suffering from job cuts. Joe Kaeser, the chief financial officer of Siemens told in a statement that the company will speed up the reshuffling of Siemens Enterprise Communications and the other related reorganizing measures which are under Siemen’s control so that the personnel steps related to the reshuffling could be socially optimum. There are as many as 17,500 individuals who work for the SEN telecommunications unit. The SEN earlier was known as Siemens Enterprise Networks and Siemens had been trying to sell the unit for quite a long time now. The engineering and technology giant also said that it was talking to three potential buyers for the unit.

The unit’s Munich head quarters will be the worst sufferers by the job cuts and as many as 1,700 workers will be handed over their walking papers. Siemens said that SEN would let go of its manufacturing activities either by selling or getting a third party to operate its Leipzig factory which employs 530 workers. The company further added that it would also sell or get new partners to run its production units located in Thessaloniki, Greece and Curitiba, Brazil. A statement issued by the company said that there is also the possibility of closing down the facilities located in these regions. The savings program initiated by the company seemed to be approved by the German stock market on Tuesday because the shares of the company gained by 2% in the early trading hours. The corporate sector of Germany in 2006 witnessed the largest corruption scandal at Siemens which affected it badly. The corruption scandal of Siemens forced the Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld to resign. Former Chairman Heinrich Von Pierer also had to put down his papers owing to the scandal.

Tags: European Economy News //