Bayer, the German chemicals and pharmaceuticals specialist, plans to axe 1,000 jobs at its Berlin-based drug maker Schering, the daily Der Tagesspiegel reported in an advance copy of its Monday issue. The company was to inform its Berlin staff on March 2 about the job cuts, which are to be made by the end of the year, the report said citing company sources.
A spokesman for the Bayer Schering Pharma unit declined to comment on the report, saying only that the company would make an announcement after its talks with staff representatives had concluded.
"We assume that will be in the first quarter of 2007," the spokesman told Der Tagesspiegel.
The German maker of Aspirin painkiller had bought Schering last year for about 17 billion euros (22 billion dollars).
Bayer chairman Werner Wenning said at the start of takeover negotiations that some 6,000 jobs would be slashed from the merged company, or about 10 percent of the workforce.
Schering employs about 5,500 people in Berlin.
