Siemens, the sprawling German electronics
group with 435,000 staff worldwide, is mulling plans to slash up to 15,000
white-collar jobs, according to labour sources quoted by a German newspaper
Wednesday.
Siemens declined to confirm the figure, set to appear in a report
Thursday in the business daily Handelsblatt.
A spokesman said, "We will comment on this in due time."
The figure evidently came from the corporation's labour representation council.
Under German law, a company must inform a labour council about layoff
intentions. Handelsblatt said the figure was far higher than labour
representatives had expected.
IG Metall, the German trade union which represents some blue-collar staff, said
it was not aware of the figure. On Sunday, a newspaper had quoted the union
saying 10,000 jobs might be axed.
Siemens management was still compiling data after a disclosure request from the
labour representation council, IG Metall said.
Siemens chief executive Peter Loescher has told the group to stand by for sales
and administration costs to be pruned up to 10 per cent by 2010, a move that suggests massive layoffs in Siemens' multinational bureaucracy.
Key Siemens businesses include turbines, telecommunications
systems, trams and medical treatment machines, dpa
reported.