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More jobs are under at Hurdsfield AZ site

Pete Bainbridge
21/11/2007

MORE jobs are being axed by AstraZeneca – plunging employees at the Macclesfield site into fresh doubts about their future.

The pharmaceuticals giant is to shed a number of staff from its global marketing department worldwide, although the exact figure is not yet known.

Although no decision has yet been made about where jobs will go, the drug company’s Hurdsfield site has a sales and marketing department, which places town workers under threat.

A spokesman said: "AstraZeneca’s global marketing organisation has announced proposals to restructure the scale and scope of its operations.

"These proposals envisage a reduction in the overall size and headcount of the organisation.

"The current headcount for the global marketing organisation is around 430 full time employees.

"These employees are currently based at AstraZeneca sites in the UK, Sweden and the US. "No decision has yet been made on how these proposals will be implemented at a site level."

He added: "These proposals are part of a wider AstraZeneca initiative to create a business that is best positioned to deliver medicines that make a meaningful difference to patient healthcare.

"On-going discussions about these proposed changes are taking place with union and employee representatives."

Earlier this year the Anglo-Swedish drugs giant cut 4,600 jobs worldwide, taking the total cuts in its restructuring programme to 7,600, ten per cent of its workforce.

Most of the jobs were administrative and data-handling, although some research scientists were axed.

The company announced 3,000 job cuts in February, and the restructuring costs led to a 10pc fall in second-quarter pre-tax profits.

Job cuts in marketing, sales and a streamlined global regulatory function were forecast in the restructuring.