Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) officials told MassDevice that the company isn’t planning on any more layoffs, at least not in the immediate future.
“We have no immediate plans for a further reduction of our workforce,” MDT spokesman Steve Cragle told MassDevice in an email. “We announced the restructuring back in May and said we planned to eliminate 2,100 positions. Some of these positions were eliminated through voluntary separation and early retirement programs, some through the elimination of unfilled positions and some through involuntary separation. Accounting for those positions (whether voluntary, involuntary or just eliminating unfilled positions) is a process that will occur throughout this fiscal year, but the actual restructuring and related lay-offs were completed back in May.”
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MassDevice first reported this week on the Minneapolis, Minn.-based company’s filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission expecting 700 additional positions to disappear from its ranks as it looked to reduce its total workforce by about 5 percent.
“In connection with the fiscal year 2011 initiative, as of the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, the company had identified approximately 2,100 positions for elimination to be achieved through voluntary early retirement packages offered to employees, voluntary separation, and involuntary separation,” officials wrote in regulatory documents filed with the federal Securities & Exchange Commission. “Of the 2,100 positions identified, approximately 1,400 positions have been eliminated as of July 29, 2011. The fiscal year 2011 initiative is scheduled to be substantially complete by the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012.”
Cragle told us that some of the positions eliminated were jobs that the company had budgeted to fill in 2011, but decided not to when the restructuring plans were announced last winter.
In May, Medtronic laid off an unspecified number of workers from its diabetes unit as part of the plan. No significant layoffs have been made public since.
New CEO Omar Ishrak has not tipped his hand as to whether any further job cuts will be needed as he plans to re-shape the company in his image.
Ishrak announced his plans to wring more growth from the world’s largest pure-play device maker in an internal email to employees in late August. First reported by MassDevice, the email details a restructuring of the company’s business lines around eight global regions in order to capitalize on increasing footprints in emerging markets around the world.
And, during a conference call with investors to discuss Medtronic’s fiscal 2012 first quarter, the newly minted chief executive said his top priority is to “align management” around a singular focus.
“I’m focused on delivering crisp and efficient operations,” he said. “My top priority is to align the management team around a single goal of growth.”
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