Pharma company Pfizer to cut up to 58 jobs at headquarters in Brussels
US pharmaceutical company Pfizer plans to cut up to 58 of the 300 jobs at its headquarters in Brussels. That reported the trade unions and the company confirmed. Last year, around 30 people were also laid off at the headquarters.
For the second year in a row, Pfizer is cutting jobs at its headquarters in Brussels, where administrative, commercial and medical staff work. In January 2024, 62 layoffs were announced. In the end, around 30 people lost their jobs.
During a special works council meeting on Friday, the management announced that it intends to lay off up to 58 employees. Just as last year, the company wants to limit the number of actual layoffs as much as possible through voluntary departures and internal mobility.
The announcement hit the trade unions hard. “Pfizer continues to make billions in profits worldwide, but at the same time is bleeding its Belgian employees dry,” said ABVV and ACV in a statement. “It is mind-boggling that a company that is so rich and was put on a pedestal during the COVID-19 pandemic is now cutting jobs around the world year after year.”
According to the trade unions, the job losses are driven by centralisation and digitalisation, partly as a result of the rise of artificial intelligence. The unions are demanding an “end to this social carnage”.
Pfizer employs more than 5,000 people in Belgium, the vast majority of whom work at the production site in Puurs, in the province of Antwerp. The company also cut 255 jobs there last year.
Pfizer's headquarters in Brussels © PHOTO Martin Bertrand / Hans Lucas via AFP