“At the expense of many managers”: Bayer wants to lay off many employees

“At the expense of many managers”
Bayer wants to lay off many employees

January 17, 2024, 9:42 p.m

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The pharmaceutical and agricultural group Bayer is under pressure. Board member Prinz now believes “drastic measures” are necessary. Many managers in particular are likely to have a negative impact on this.

Bayer boss Bill Anderson is getting serious about his plans for a new organizational structure for the Leverkusen-based pharmaceutical and agricultural group. This will also involve a significant reduction in personnel in the group companies in Germany, which should be completed by the end of next year at the latest, the company announced.

“Our new operating model is intended to make Bayer faster and more innovative. However, its introduction will come at the expense of many managers,” explained Barbara Gansewendt, chairwoman of the Bayer Group Spokespersons’ Committee. The general employment security, which protects employees in Germany from redundancies for operational reasons, has only been extended for another year until the end of 2026.

Bayer employs around 22,200 people in this country and almost 100,900 worldwide at the end of September. There have been no operational layoffs at the aspirin manufacturer in the past 27 years. “In order to quickly and sustainably improve the performance of our organization and our scope for action, drastic measures are now necessary. We want to quickly get Bayer back on the road to success,” explained Heike Prinz, board member and labor director at Bayer.

Anderson had already said in November that Bayer was facing a “radical realignment”. Several management levels should therefore be eliminated and coordination processes simplified. Twelve levels between him and the customers were “simply too much,” Anderson complained and suggested that the workforce would be significantly reduced, but no specific figures have been given yet.

“Tense economic situation”

According to Bayer, the management board and the employee representatives on the supervisory board agreed on principles for the future of the company in a joint statement. The employee representatives are “vigorously” committed to the continued existence of the group with all three divisions, said the chairwoman of the general works council, Heike Hausfeld. “In the company’s tense economic situation, the programs and measures already in place are not sufficient, which is why we have agreed to further cuts with a heavy heart.”

The job cuts should be made as socially acceptable as possible. Bayer plans to announce further details about the group restructuring at its Capital Markets Day on March 5th. In addition to maintaining three divisions, Anderson recently saw a separation from the non-prescription health products business or the agricultural division as the main options.

The pressure on Anderson, who has led the company since June, is high. In addition to reviewing the group structure with the three divisions, which also includes the pharmaceutical business, investors expect him to regain the trust of investors. This has suffered greatly from the billion-dollar takeover of the glyphosate developer Monsanto and the wave of US lawsuits because of the weed killer’s alleged carcinogenic effects. At the end of last year there was also a bitter flop in a clinical study with Bayer’s biggest pharmaceutical hope, the anticoagulant Asundexian.