Siemens to lay off 7'800 worldwide

"Our Vision 2020 concept will enable us to get our company back on a sustainable growth path and close the profitability gap to our competitors. Our strategic reorientation has enabled us to considerably streamline our organization and remove entire intermediate levels. These steps will bring our businesses closer to our customers and make us significantly faster. As a result, certain tasks and functions will be completely eliminated. We're going to tackle this challenge together and implement the resulting measures responsibly. This completes the restructuring of our company in line with the new organizational setup of October 1, 2014," said Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG. Plans call for cutting about 3'300 jobs in Germany. "We now want to begin talks with the relevant employee representatives as soon as possible and search constructively for socially responsible solutions," said Janina Kugel, member of the managing board and Labor Director. "We've made an agreement with the employee representatives that states that we want to avoid layoffs due to operational requirements. And of course, this agreement still applies," she added. Siemens' cross-company functions are to be bundled and streamlined more intensively. Siemens is also aiming simplifying internal workflows and processes, from strategic planning to the scope of internal reporting. Decision-making processes within the company are being accelerated by the elimination of intermediate levels and the transfer of more responsibility to the Regions and Divisions. Together, these measures are expected to generate productivity gains of about EUR 1 billion, which will be realized in large measure by the end of 2016. The savings achieved will be invested in innovation, productivity and growth initiatives, a considerable part of which will be in Germany.