Thursday, August 17, 2000 Older Editions

Latest losses announced: Agilent layoffs hit Andover

By Neil Fater

About 150 full-time Andover employees and another 70 contact workers learned this week that they will lose their jobs at Andover's Agilent Technologies.

These layoffs are all within Agilent's Healthcare Solutions Group, which is headquartered in Andover.

Worldwide, Agilent says that about 450 of the 5,000 full-time workers in its Healthcare Solutions Group will be affected by a "global restructuring" of this division. Another 200 contract workers will also be let go.

Employees can seek another job within the company, and if they find one, Agilent will pay relocation costs, says Agilent spokesperson Heidi Wilson.

But employees that do leave Agilent must sign a release form waiving any claims against Agilent, if they are to receive the most-generous severance package offered by the company.

This package offers employees between two-months and six-months base salary, depending on their length of service to the company, says Wilson.

Those who sign the waiver within 10 days will receive an extra two months of pay, says Wilson.

Those who do not sign the waiver will receive only one-half of a month's base pay as severance, she says.

Wilson calls the restructuring within the Healthcare Solutions Group essentially "an immediate action that in the U.S. we must complete by Oct. 31 because that's the end of our fiscal year."

Agilent's health-care group has been losing millions of dollars this fiscal year. In the second quarter, the health-care-solutions business posted a $30- million loss.

Third-quarter figures were to be announced today, Thursday, after Townsman press time. However, Agilent officials said last month that they expected the quarter to "fall short of expectations," and at least equal the $30-million second-quarter loss.

"The health-care market has never been softer," says Wilson, indicating that Agilent has been hurt by the same forces that have left Massachusetts hospitals seeing budgetary red for the past several quarters.

But Agilent is counting on this week's cuts to turn around the recent trend.

In a press release this week, Ned Barnholt, Agilent CEO and president, said, "We're taking these actions to return our health-care solutions business to profitability as quickly as possible.

"The business' current financial performance is clearly unacceptable, and we don't intend to wait for market conditions to improve before implementing our plans. We're firmly committed to strengthening this business and are confident that today's actions will help get HSG back on track."

This week's actions will be felt across the Healthcare Solutions group, in manufacturing, administration, finance and marketing.

"By and large our sales and service is largely unaffected by today's announcement," says Wilson. "What does this mean to our customers? They're still going to get the same products, still hear from the same people."

This week's restructuring is in addition to Agilent's decision to consolidate 41 of its manufacturing centers into six to 10 "megasites," the first of which will be located in Singapore.

Agilent has said its efforts during the next two years to streamline its manufacturing operations will also affect the Andover facility, which houses about 2,200 of Agilent's 43,000 employees, and about 600 manufacturing employees.

Wilson says that the changes will not affect all 600 manufacturing employees, however because, "there is manufacturing that will stay in Andover."

The company's new product development division will remain in Andover, and Andover workers will continue to produce Sonos, Agilent's cardiac ultrasound system.

The Andover HSG will offer a career center, job-search support and career-transition counselors to the laid-off employees, according to Wilson.