Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has recently announced plans to eliminate 1,600 jobs across its UK and US operations by 2016. The job reduction measures form part of a global reorganisation programme of the company’s research and development staff, relocating them into three global R&D centres in Cambridge, UK; Gaithersburg, Maryland, US; and Mölndal near Gothenburg, Sweden.
According to reports, 1,200 jobs will be shed in the company’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, US by 2015. While 650 of these positions will be eliminated directly through layoffs, the remainder will be transferred to other company plants. According to reports, 300 positions will be transferred to another US site (Gaithersburg, Md.) and the remaining 250 positions will be transferred to the company’s centres in Cambridge, UK and Mölndal, Sweden.
Moreover, the company has announced plans to relocate staff within the UK, where it currently employs around 6,700 staff. By 2016, AstraZeneca will relocate a large proportion of its staff currently employed in Alderley Park, Cheshire (1,600 staff) and London to its new facility in Cambridge. According to the company, these steps will result in a workforce reduction of 700 staff in the UK by 2016, with an additional 300 roles likely to be relocated outside the UK.
AstraZeneca has previously carried out large scale restructuring programmes (pleased see factsheets on previous global restructuring AstraZeneca 2010 & AstraZeneca 2012). The global biopharmaceutical firm operates across 100 countries and currently employs around 51,700 staff globally.
Eurofound (2013), Astra Zeneca, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 75089, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/75089.
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