Tyco Lays Off Sensormatic Workers in Boca; Work Moved to Puerto Rico

BOCA RATON, Fla.

Tyco Int’l Ltd. the week of July 7 laid off its last 30 production workers in Boca Raton, Fla., who made anti-shoplifting clothing tags under the Sensormatic Electronics label.

Officials say the manufacturing work will be moved to Tyco’s plant in Puerto Rico, where the company employs 1,200 production workers. The workers made the tags for the past 22 years in South Florida, first in Deerfield Beach and later in Boca Raton.

“The work is being consolidated at that [Boca Raton] facility,” Tyco spokesman Gary Holmes said Thursday, according to the Palm Beach Post. “This is an ongoing process in which we’re constantly evaluating how to make the company more efficient.”

With the layoffs, the Boca Raton work force Tyco inherited from Sensormatic almost two years ago has dwindled to about 500 from 1,100 to 1,200 in early 2001. Sensormatic announced cuts of 450 workers in April 2001, although about half of them took place after Tyco completed its $2 billion acquisition of Sensormatic seven months later.

Tyco’s Sensormatic production employees joined others the firm employed in Boca Raton, including corporate staff and employees in the Fire and Security Division and within ADT Security Services.

The employees remaining at the old Sensormatic plant in Florida handle sales, marketing and research and development.

Tyco CEO Ed Breen has been cutting back on the work force in Boca Raton for the past year. Tyco laid off 35 people last June, after then-Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski resigned and was charged with sales tax evasion.

In April, Tyco said it would consolidate its corporate employees in offices near Princeton, N.J., moving 150 high-paid staffers from Boca Raton by the end of summer. Those employees have yet to move, and Tyco still employs 900 to 1,000 people here, spokesman Holmes said.

Holmes wouldn’t say if other layoffs are expected or if Tyco is planning a move out of Boca Raton altogether.

He said Ron Krisanda, an executive based in Boca who was recently named president of the Tyco Safety Products Division, would remain here, effectively making Boca the division headquarters. The previous division president worked from London.

“This is something that is ongoing,” he said of the personnel moves, according to the newspaper. “We never make any absolute statements about the future.”

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