Voluntary personnel adjustment phase largely successful
No need for compensation plan
At today's staff meeting the employees of the Ludwigshafen pharmaceuticals company Knoll GmbH and Knoll Deutschland GmbH were informed that the personnel reduction announced in June 2001 has been largely resolved on a voluntary basis. This means that no social compensation plan will be necessary. The approximately 40 positions that are still open will be resolved individually in the coming weeks.
Knoll GmbH has been given a new role as a result of its sale to Abbott Laboratories on 2 March 2001. The Ludwigshafen site remains one of the principal sites of Abbott Laboratories outside the USA, even though its personnel strength has been reduced from 2100 to 1700 employees as part of the integration process.
Overall about 480 positions were shed as a result of the dissolution of the units formerly responsible for worldwide business activities, and of the reorganization of Research and Development. On the other hand 80 new jobs will be created, mainly due to the expansion of production.
"I am very relieved that we have succeeded in implementing these wide-ranging personnel reduction measures in such a short time on the basis of the package of provisions that we put forward," declared Dr. Dieter Wagner, the Chairman of the Knoll GmbH Management Board. "So now we can devote our entire efforts to strengthening the competitive edge of our site and to pro-actively shaping our future within the Abbott organization", emphasized Wagner.
"It is always an unpleasant task to have to implement personnel reduction measures, as it can cause such a disruption in the lives of individual employees. Nevertheless I am happy that we, together with company management, have succeeded in solving this problem in such a way that nobody had to be made unemployed. A solution has been found for every person affected. Now we have to look ahead and play our full part in shaping the future of the site," said Roland Brendel, the Chairman of the Works Council of Knoll GmbH.
For the voluntary phase, which ended on 15 September, company management and the employees' representatives had agreed on a package of measures to provide incentives to the staff to leave the company, such as severance pay, early retirement offers and support in starting up their own businesses. Knoll's own personnel development company STEP was actively engaged in providing support to employees affected by the personnel downsizing by means of job application schooling, outplacement counseling, qualification measures and active, external placement in the job market. In addition, a number of employees were given the opportunity to return to BASF.
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