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BENGALURU (Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co joined a list of large US companies on Friday that laid off thousands of workers in response to the coronavirus crisis, offering voluntary agreements across all their businesses and promising to cut their number of workers in half. operating units.
The company was offering voluntary layoffs to 4,000 workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and would offer similar deals in other markets, it said in a statement, while indicating that further layoffs would likely follow.
“The voluntary program is expected to reduce the number of involuntary separations,” said the world’s largest beverage maker, adding that global severance programs would incur costs of between $ 350 million and $ 550 million.
The company, which is fighting a sales shock from the closure of bars, restaurants and cinemas where it normally sells a lot, said it would have nine operating units that would be located in four geographic segments, along with bottling and global investment divisions.
Its current model includes 17 business units.
The plan to cut jobs comes at a time when the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits was hovering around 1 million last week, and the government confirmed that the economy suffered its sharpest contraction in at least 73 years in the second. trimester.
United Airlines Holdings Inc said Thursday that it was preparing the largest pilot licenses in its history, saying it needed to cut about 21% of total pilot jobs due to a drop in air travel.
Cosmetics maker Estee Lauder Cos Inc and oil services giant Schlumberger NV have announced in recent weeks that they will cut thousands of jobs.
Coca-Cola last month reported a 28% drop in sales in the “most challenging” quarter of the year due to restaurant, theater and sports venue closures triggered by the coronavirus.
The company’s shares were up about 1% in early trading.
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