Industry: Siemens wants to reduce around 6,000 jobs

Siemens wants to reduce around 6,000 jobs worldwide, 2,850 of them in Germany. The recently weakening division Digital Industries (DI) is affected, as the company said.

CEO Roland Busch had already announced a job cuts in the low to medium four -digit range in autumn, now there are concrete figures. The dismantling in Germany should take place without any operational termination.

5,600 jobs – 2,600 of them in Germany – are to be eliminated by the end of September 2027 in the automation business belonging to the digital industries division. For some time now, it has been suffering from high inventory from customers and dealers, which leads to weak demand and poor utilization of the capacities.

In the automation business, sales were significantly sagged. Most recently, the group assumed an improvement in the current year. Overall, business at Siemens is going well: in the first quarter, the group made a profit of 2.1 billion euros.

Changes in central markets made adjustments necessary, it said from Siemens. “The German market in particular has been declining for two years. Therefore, capacities in Germany have to be adjusted.” Overall, however, the staff in Germany will remain “constant in the tendency”, since Siemens recruit in other, growing areas.

Bavaria could be particularly affected

There is still no further information on where the positions in Germany are to be broken down. However, it is obvious that Bavaria should be particularly affected, since most of the works of the DI are located there.

A further 450 positions are to be lost in the business with charging solutions for electric vehicles that Siemens wants to resolve by the end of September of the current year – 250 of them in Germany.

“There is currently a strong price pressure in the market and a limited growth potential for charging stations in the lower performance area. Therefore, the business focuses on market segments such as the quick charging infrastructure for depot and fleet,” it said.

Criticism from the employee side

Criticism came from the employee side. “We have no understanding of the planned measures at DI and are surprised and annoyed in view of the massive planned dismantling number,” said Birgit Steinborn, chairman of the general works council and deputy chairman of the supervisory board.

“If the One Tech Company is to be a growth program, we demand that jobs are created sustainably instead of in favor of the profit margin,” she said. Under this title, Siemens announced a program last year, with which units are to be brought together more.

The second chairman of IG Metall, Jürgen Kerner, who also sits on the Siemens Supervisory Board, also criticized the plans. “On the one hand, designing the future -oriented target image of a One Tech Company and reducing thousands of places on the other is not conveyed to the employees,” he said.

“The trust that the employees are taken on the way through the transformation and the new line -up is quickly smashed by such measures and is then difficult to repair,” said Kerner. “The transformation is not managed by breakdown, but through positive change – especially further development and qualification.”

Operating dismissals are excluded from securing the location and employment, said Kerner. “Rather, the question is how you want to achieve the fundamentally changed corporate structure of the future through a radical shrink cure. In our view, this cannot work.”