BackTeva Pharmaceutical to cut up to 6,000 jobs: Report
Teva Pharmaceutical is looking to eliminate between 5,000 and 6,000 positions over the next few years, says a newspaper report
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Tel Aviv: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd plans to cut as many as 6,000 jobs, or about 11% of its global workforce, the daily Israeli newspaper Calcalist reported.
The world’s biggest producer of generic drugs is looking to eliminate between 5,000 and 6,000 positions over the next few years, Calcalist reported on Thursday, without saying how it got the information. A 5,000-person reduction would save $2 billion, the paper said.
A spokesman for Teva declined to comment. The company has already laid off about 100 employees in Israel, where it’s based, and is seeking to cut hundreds more in the coming weeks, Calcalist said.
Teva has said it’s looking to cut costs to help pay down debt. But laying off workers at home, where the drugmaker gets tax breaks from the government, has backfired before. Former chief executive officer Jeremy Levin faced fierce resistance to his cost-cutting plans about four years ago from local politicians and unions.
“A few years ago, we were in a similar situation and we went to the battle," Eliran Kozlick, the head of Teva’s workers’ committee, wrote in a Facebook post early on Thursday. “If the management wants to do this again, we will all work together and win as we did in the previous struggle."
The Israeli drugmaker employed nearly 57,000 people at the end of last year, according to its annual report. Bloomberg
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