Siemens will not cut its workforce because of the economic downturn triggered by the new coronavirus, Chief Executive Joe Kaeser said, although short-time working measures could be extended in Germany.
“No one at Siemens will leave because of a temporary fluctuation in activity,” Kaeser told Passauer Neue Presse in an interview published on Saturday.
Siemens still had to adapt to structural changes, like in fossil fuel power where the trend is moving toward renewable energies, he said, reports Reuters.
“But in a temporary crisis, there’s no question: we will get through it together. And when the crisis is over, and things are picking up again, we’ll tackle it together,” Kaeser said.
So far only a small number of Siemens workers – 1,600 out of 120,000 in Germany, are on short-time work.
“But I can’t rule out that there will be more,” he told the newspaper.
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe with branch offices abroad.
Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser
The principal divisions of the company are Industry, Energy, Healthcare (Siemens Healthineers), and Infrastructure & Cities, which represent the main activities of the company. The company is a prominent maker of medical diagnostics equipment and its medical health-care division, which generates about 12 percent of the company’s total sales, is its second-most profitable unit, after the industrial automation division. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 385,000 people worldwide and reported global revenue of around €87 billion in 2019 according to its earnings release.
