IT jobs at risk as AstraZeneca announces cull

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 28 January 2010 at 13:13:00

Some 8,000 jobs to be axed globally as part of �1.1bn savings plan

IT jobs could be at risk as pharma giant AstraZeneca announced a job cuts
programme that will affect 8,000 jobs worldwide.

Press reports suggest that business infrastructure and research and
development ? areas that often employ a substantial number of technology staff ?
are among the departments affected.

The IT department at the company has already seen extensive cuts over the
past few years.

For example, some 1,100 IT staff worked in data management at AstraZeneca
prior to the start of an outsourcing deal with Indian IT services firm Cognizant
in 2007.
Since
the contract began, the workforce was reduced to some 300 Cognizant staff and 50
AstraZeneca employees.

AstraZeneca's four-year redundancy plan, which aims to generate �1.1bn in
savings by 2014, has already eliminated an additional 12,600 roles across
various departments.

The company?s key sites are located in Macclesfield, Cheshire and London,
with additional offices in Alderley Park, Loughborough, Bristol and Luton.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2256949/jobs-risk-astrazeneca-announces