The pharmaceutical and chemical group Bayer wants to strengthen its German locations. By 2022 for about 1.5 to 2 billion euros are available, as the group announced. According to the General Works Council, annual investments of 300 to 350 million euros are planned for the plants in Wuppertal, Leverkusen, Berlin, Bergkamen and Weimar.
The money should flow into the preservation, expansion and construction of new facilities. The fact that Bayer wants to invest in Germany in the digitalization and biotechnology, was a "very important signal" for the employees, said the Central Works Council Chairman Oliver Zühlke, according to the announcement. Overall, Bayer wants to invest around 35 billion euros worldwide in research and development by 2022, about half of them in Germany.
Operational dismissals excluded until the end of 2025
The investment commitment is part of a management agreement with the works council. In it, the conditions for the reduction of 4,500 jobs at Bayer in Germany are finally regulated. According to Bayer, the agreement "confirms and clarifies" the contents of a joint statement of November 2018. According to this, around 12,000 of the approximately 117,000 jobs worldwide will be eliminated by the end of 2021, of which 4,500 in Germany.
For the large group companies in Germany, redundancies until the end of 2025 are excluded. This also applies to the German employees of the animal medicine division sold by Bayer. The job cuts in Germany should be made, among other things, through severance payments.
According to the employee representatives, the agreement also stipulates that the management of the Group, its divisions and global functions will continue to be based in Germany. Thus all German locations of the group are secured.