Welch Allyn to cut 275 jobs globally over three years

SKANEATELES FALLS  —  Welch Allyn plans to cut its global workforce by 10 percent over three years as part of a companywide restructuring.

The medical device manufacturer, headquartered in Skaneateles Falls, currently employs 2,750 people in 26 countries. It had more than 1,200 workers in Skaneateles Falls as of this spring. Planned staffing reductions will be voluntary and involuntary, the company said in a news release.

Changes to the global health care environment drove the manufacturer to restructure, it said. The company also cited a 2.3 percent federal tax on the sale price of medical devices that is scheduled to start in 2013 as part of the national health care reform law.

Welch Allyn plans to consolidate its North American manufacturing and support functions at its facilities in Skaneateles Falls and Tijuana, Mexico. It will undergo a 90-day evaluation of its European operations and reorganize its business in Latin America.

Effects of the changes on staffing levels at the Skaneateles Falls facility were not immediately available. But the location will absorb Welch Allyn’s patient-monitoring, systems, and low-acuity vital-signs manufacturing operations, which had been in its Beaverton, Ore. facility. The Central New York location will also lose some blood-pressure-cuff manufacturing operations to Tijuana.

“We firmly believe this restructuring program is the right thing to do for the long-term success of the business, however, we also fully recognize the hardship it will cause some of our colleagues in the short term,” Welch Allyn President and CEO Steve Meyer said.

The company will reimburse workers who lose their jobs up to $4,000 in educational costs. It also said it will offer each affected employee a “generous separation package.”

Welch Allyn was founded in 1915. Its manufacturing operations are in Skaneateles Falls; Beaverton, Ore.; Tijuana, Mexico; Navan, Ireland; and Jungingen, Germany.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com