Philips cuts 6,000 more jobs after sleep device recall
THE HAGUE
Embattled Dutch medical tech maker Philips said yesterday it will slash 6,000 more jobs worldwide after fresh losses caused by a massive recall of faulty sleep respirators.
Chief Executive Roy Jakobs announced the “difficult, but necessary further reduction of our workforce” by 2025, which comes just three months after it announced another 4,000 cuts.
“2022 has been a very difficult year for Philips and our stakeholders, and we are taking firm actions to improve our execution and step up performance with urgency,” Jakobs said in a statement.
The Amsterdam-based firm unveiled net losses of 105 million euros ($114 million) for the fourth quarter of 2022 and 1.6 billion euros for last year as a whole, largely due to the recall.
Philips announced a global recall in 2021 of its appliances to treat people suffering from sleep apnea.
This followed concerns patients risked “possible toxic and carcinogenic effects” if they inhaled or swallowed pieces of degraded sound-dampening foam on the machines.
Jakobs, who took over in October, said Philips needed to “improve performance and simplify our way of working to improve our agility and productivity.”
This includes the difficult, but necessary further reduction of our workforce by around 6,000 roles globally by 2025,” he added.
A total of 3,000 of the new job cuts would be made in 2023.
