Amid Boston Scientific’s decision to transfer some work out of a facility in Houston in the coming months, more than 100 jobs are hanging in the balance.
A notice that Boston Scientific filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on Feb. 22—in accordance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act—listed 120 permanent layoffs at the facility as a result of the transfer.
However, the letter also noted that all of the affected employees were given the opportunity to apply to “alternative roles” at the company’s campus in Arden Hills, Minnesota. Those who choose to make the move will be given relocation assistance, according to the notice, which was shared with Fierce Medtech by the Texas Workforce Commission—though Boston Scientific didn’t note how many employees actually took it up on the offer.
“Our priority is the employees who will be affected by the decision,” the company said in a statement sent to Fierce Medtech. “Those individuals have been given notification and are being offered transition assistance.”
The “separations from employment” at the Houston facility are slated to occur between April 23 and June 25, per the WARN notice. Boston Scientific said it previously told the facility’s workers of its plan to slim down operations there about a year in advance, in April 2022, but each affected employee will now be notified of their actual termination date at least 60 days beforehand.
The workforce shake-up comes as Boston Scientific plans to move some of the work of the Houston facility to its Arden Hills campus.
The Texas space was originally an outpost of Minnesota-based Preventice Solutions. Boston Scientific inherited the facility in its early 2021 acquisition of the wearable heart monitor maker, in which the devicemaker struck a deal valued at up to $1.25 billion to add Preventice’s products to its own portfolio of mobile heart health devices.
“This change will help us meet anticipated market demand for the products,” Boston Scientific said in the statement. “Transferring work among our facilities helps us align our products, capabilities, technologies and resources to support our business strategies, and deliver value to our customers as well as life-changing medical solutions to patients.”
Boston Scientific’s last major report of layoffs was also tied to a transfer of work between facilities. In that case, the company filed a WARN notice with the state of California in December 2021, detailing its plans to permanently close its Baytech manufacturing facility in San Jose and transfer its work to other unspecified company sites—resulting in the layoffs of 170 employees.
More recently, layoffs have plagued many of the medtech giant’s peers, especially as those with vast diagnostics departments have seen year-over-year profits dwindle among plummeting demand for COVID-19 tests. Earlier this month, for example, Thermo Fisher Scientific filed a WARN notice of its own in California announcing plans to close three manufacturing sites there, eliminating a total of 230 jobs in the process.