Germany : some of Siemens’ works councils prevent staff advancement until further details concerning the restructuring plan

The leader of the Siemens European works council ( EWC) at Siemens, Walter Mönius, stated that Siemens employees and IG Metall were preparing strong resistance to the job suppression plan announced end June by Peter Löscher. The management of Siemens (398,000 employees) plans to cut 17,200 jobs, including 6,400 in Germany, by 2010: “the speed of change worldwide has increased dramatically. We must adapt the group. We must be more efficient”, stated Mr.  Löscher. Although the group has not yet officially confirmed the sectors and personnel categories concerned, the plan should affect mainly management jobs in administration and sales services where, even acknowledged by the unions, many jobs have become superfluous since the internal restructuring of the group into three major branches of activity (industry, energy, health). Siemens hopes in this way to save around 1, 2 billion € a year.