Medtronic To Cut Jobs In Minnesota

By Jof Enriquez,
Follow me on Twitter @jofenriq

Medtronic is slated to cut 40 positions in two locations in Minnesota as part of a restructuring charge it released in May. The cuts come in the wake of the company’s announcement to acquire Covidien and move its headquarters to Ireland.

The plan affects employees working at Medtronic’s headquarters in Fridley, where its neuromodulation division is located, and in Mounds View, where its cardiac rhythm and structural heart businesses are based, according to a report from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

The layoffs were recently disclosed by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) in its latest Dislocated Worker Program update. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal says it is not unusual for the agency to receive notifications from companies several weeks or months prior to actual layoffs.

After announcing plans to merge with Covidien, Medtronic had pledged to hire 1,000 workers in addition to the 8,000 employees it already has in Minnesota — its base since it was founded in 1949.

In an interview with Reuters after the deal was announced, Medtronic chairman and CEO Omar Ishrak described the move as “strategic, both in the intermediate term and the long term,” but critics are saying that it was primarily for tax inversion purposes. 

“While we’ve had to make some organizational changes, we’ve also added jobs. Our current employee number is more than 49,000 [worldwide]. Last year we reported 46,000,” spokeswoman Cindy Resman wrote in an email to the Minneapolis /St. Paul Business Journal.

The recent disclosure to cut more jobs suggests otherwise, and the  Minneapolis /St. Paul Business Journal noted that Medtronic had already slashed 1,000 Minnesota jobs, or about 11 percent of its local workforce, between 2011 and 2013. According to the article, Medtronic is also planning to combine its endovascular division with that of Covidien’s counterpart unit based in neighboring Plymouth, and that could mean more job cuts are in the offing.