Viatris Korea will move out from the building of Pfizer Korea completely by the end of this year, and the two companies will reduce their workforce through voluntary retirement programs, according to industry officials.
Pfizer Korea and Viatris Korea said they recently confirmed their plans to move to new places in Seoul, respectively, next year.
The Korean branch of Viatris, which was spun off from Pfizer as Upjohn and merged with Mylan, has been using the same building with Pfizer Korea even after the company started afresh.
In August, Viatris Korea decided to use the co-working space Fast Five in Myeong-dong nearby temporarily. The company plans to move out of the Pfizer Korea building by the end of this year.
Viatris Korea reportedly confirmed that it would move to the Grand Central building near Seoul Station early next year.
Pfizer Korea will also leave Pfizer Tower in Hoehyeon-dong and move to State Tower Namsan nearby in the second half of next year.
The two companies plan to reduce the workforce before splitting completely, industry sources said. In addition, they will operate an early retirement program for employees who have been working for more than 20 years, they said.
Pfizer Korea hopes to cut the number of employees with more than 20 years of work by half, and Viatris Korea, by more than 30 percent. The ERP will apply to the sales division and long-serving workers, sources said.
Given that the ERP will apply to long-serving workers with over 20 years of work, only a small number of employees are expected to use the ERP. However, costs for ERP execution will be considerably high, observers said.
Insiders of Pfizer Korea and Viatris Korea said the company might provide severance pay to ERP users by adding consolation money to 45-month wages.
Viatris Korea said the voluntary ERP aims to make the company “a competitive organization to successfully implement future businesses and strategies amid accelerated changes in the internal and external business environment.”
“This will be carried out entirely by the voluntary will of employees, and we do not have a reduction target such as a ‘30 percent’ goal,” the company said. “The condition for the ERP is similar to the existing program, and payment will be different depending on the individual’s years of service.”
Pfizer Korea, however, said the company did not have any plan to execute the ERP.