Less than 2% of 23,000 global workforce affected
DePuy Synthes Cos. has eliminated an undisclosed number of jobs, affecting a portion of the company’s Warsaw workforce, an official confirmed Wednesday.
Lorie Gawreluk, vice president of worldwide communications, said in an email that less than 2 percent of the company’s 23,000-person global workforce is affected by the job eliminations. Two percent would be 460 jobs.
“The impact of the job changes is global and across many sites and areas of our business,” Gawreluk said, declining to be more specific about the number of jobs lost in Warsaw. She also declined to provide an exact Warsaw employee headcount.
DePuy employed about 1,200 in the Kosciusko County city as of two years ago.
Warsaw Mayor Joseph Thallemer didn’t return a message left Wednesday afternoon seeking comment. An assistant in his office wasn’t aware of DePuy alerting the mayor to impending job cuts.
Joe Frank, spokesman for the Department of Workforce Development, said state officials hadn’t received notice as of late Wednesday afternoon from DePuy.
DePuy Synthes Cos., a unit of of Johnson & Johnson, bills itself as the largest orthopedic and neurological solutions provider in the world.
In 2012, Johnson & Johnson paid $21.3 billion for Swiss orthopedics maker Synthes, then the world leader in trauma products, to create the combined companies.
The company is reorganizing to respond to economic and health care changes, Gawreluk said in the email.
DePuy Synthes, she wrote, will offer more products to hospitals, improve innovation, offer expert guidance to orthopedic surgeons and cut costs, among other goals.
“As we transform our operating model, the majority of our employee roles won’t change or will change minimally. New roles are being created and other roles are being eliminated,” she wrote, adding that about 80 new positions have been created to help the company execute its new strategy.
Gawreluk declined to say how many of those new jobs will be in Warsaw.
“We hope impacted employees will strongly consider these positions as well as career opportunities across Johnson & Johnson,” she said.
For those whose jobs are eliminated, the company is offering severance benefits and job placement assistance.
