Valeant Pharmaceuticals has completed its previously announced acquisition of Rochester-based Bausch + Lomb and on Tuesday the company also began the process of laying off hundreds of workers. An official with the Canadian company tells WXXI News that "less than 500 employees" will be laid off.
A specific number was not immediately provided by Valeant but a spokesperson says that there are no plans to relocate manufacturing or research and development jobs from Rochester, and those jobs total about 1,000.
Governor Cuomo's office says that a total of 400 employees at B + L will be laid off, 200 were notified on Tuesday with the option to leave immediately or remain through the end of the week. An additional 200 are expected to be laid off through early 2014. The Governor's Rapid Response Team is used to help workers affected by cutbacks.
Valeant says that they will honor severance plans that were already in place. The company says honoring those severance plans will cost them an additional 30 to 40 million dollars in severance over and above what they otherwise would have provided.
Recently, Valeant announced that it was planning on cutting 10 to 15 percent of its overall workforce, many of those corporate jobs.
