Zug, 13.05.2019

Number of jobs in Zug "will not change significantly", says Siemens boss as 10,000 are to go world-wide

As a result of major re-structuring planned for the Siemens company, some 10,400 jobs are to go worldwide, though as the new boss of Siemens (Switzerland), Matthias E. Rebellius, said at the beginning of April, he does not think that the number of jobs will change significantly here in Zug.

 

 

In all, the company employs 5,740 in Switzerland, with “just” 1,700 in Zug at the world headquarters of what is known as the Smart Infrastructure (SI) Division. Worldwide, some 70,000 work in this sector with 3,000 SI jobs earmarked to go globally, though by 2023 some 6,000 new jobs, mainly in service, distribution, research and development, are expected to be created in this area, resulting in 3,000 more jobs overall, the whole idea being to enable the company to grow more quickly and increase margins by between13 and15 per cent by 2023, as Cedric Neike, the head of the SI division, explained.

 

However, as journalist Maurizio Minetti pointed out in this article, it remains unclear as to how the plant in Zug will be affected by the redundancies, with one company spokesman emphasising that the restructuring was a global matter and would take place over a long period of time. “We cannot say at present what effect this will have on our plants in Switzerland and Zug in particular,” he said.

 

Neike went on to say that the company was looking at various options as to how it might become more profitable and mentioned how a slimmed-down administration could contribute to this considerably. “Then, through a grouping of our capacities and cooperation between the 79 factories engaged in the SI business, we also hope to be able to lower costs over the next three years,” he said.

 

Out of interest according to the company’s website, five Siemens Gamesa turbines of six-megawatt-class have recently been installed on floating foundations in Norway in preparation for what will be the world’s largest floating wind farm, the “Hywind Scotland” project”.