DuPont cuts 1,700 jobs ahead of Dow merger

US CHEMICAL manufacturer DuPont is cutting 1,700 jobs ahead of its upcoming merger with Dow. The job losses, announced towards the end of December 2015, will be put in place early this year.

DuPont also announced in December that it was planning to slash approximately 10% of its 63,000 workforce, with further job reductions still to be announced. The severance cost for the cuts will be US$780m before tax reductions.

Ed Breen, CEO of DuPont, said the company had to announce the job cuts at this time, as the company was legally required to disclose all details with local governments by 31 Dec.

“Given that we are in the middle of the holidays, we would have preferred to wait until individual notifications were complete before reporting the full local impact,' Breen said in a letter to DuPont employees.

As part of a global cost savings and restructuring plan, DuPont has also closed its well-known Central Research & Development unit, which has hosted the creations of nylon and synthetic rubber, and the work of 1987 Nobel Prize winner Charles Pedersen.

As of 1 January, DuPont’s entire R&D operation has been integrated into a single unit, known as “Science & Engineering.”