TOKYO -- Toshiba said Friday that it has cut 14,450 jobs worldwide, roughly 30% more than planned, as it struggles to get back on its feet following a damaging book-cooking scandal.
The initial target was to reduce the number of workers worldwide by 10,840 from the level at the end of March 2015. Cuts in Japan totaled 8,430. Most of the 6,020 jobs slashed outside Japan were layoffs.
The number includes 3,449 people who accepted early retirement packages, which targeted 40 and older full-time employees with 10 years or more of service. The offer was put forward to workers in the consumer electronics, PC, semiconductor, health care and administrative divisions in Japan. This was the first time the company offered early retirement since the year ended March 2002.
The so-called lifestyle division, which handles consumer electronics and PCs, saw the biggest job reduction at 7,610. Some operations within the semiconductor division were also hit hard, losing 4,590 employees.
Toshiba sold the image sensor production facilities at a plant in Oita Prefecture to Sony. This reduced the number of workers by 1,100.
Toshiba estimates a roughly 42 billion yen ($386 million) hit from the job cuts, including retirement packages and costs of helping workers find new jobs. But the company says it has already reflected the expense in its group earnings projection for the year ended last month.
(Nikkei)
