Boston Sci and Abbott to Cut Hundreds of Jobs in California

A WARN report states that four healthcare companies are planning significant layoffs in both Southern California and the Bay Area.

Brian Buntz

Boston Scientific has laid off 455 workers from facilities in Fremont and San Jose, while Abbott Vascular has cut 244 employees in Santa Clara and Temecula. Boston Scientific's layoffs were the result of permanent plant closures while Abbott's were cited as permanent layoffs in a recent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) document.

The Boston Scientific layoffs are a result of the company's 2013 decision to move its single-use device manufacturing in Silicon Valley to its facility in Costa Rica, according to a Boston Scientific spokesman quoted by FierceMedical Devices. "This decision leverages Boston Scientific's current infrastructure, skills and capabilities. We are now nearing the completion of this transfer, and as a result, manufacturing of these devices in the San Jose and Fremont sites will cease by the end of October," the spokesperson explained.

Abbott, which has had several waves of layoffs in recent years, is cutting 81 employees in Santa Clara and 163 workers in Temecula, CA. About 450 workers had been cut from the Temecula facility in 2013. The company followed that in 2014 by cutting an unspecified number of workers from its Abbott Park, IL-headquarters and about 100 more in Temecula later in the year.

Also cited on the WARN list were a handful of other healthcare companies. One of the most prominent telehealth firms, Bosch Healthcare, is letting 55 workers go from its Palo Alto-location as part of a broader realignment that will result in the closing of the company's U.S. telehealth business. "Despite early entry to the telehealth market, the strategic and economic targets associated with Bosch's telehealth business did not develop as expected," according to a statement from the company

Carlsbad, CA-based Alphatec Spine is cutting 99 workers while Actavis is handing out pink slips to 45 workers based in Corona.