Asian Tech Press (Oct 24) -- Dutch medical equipment maker Philips plans to lay off about 4,000 employees worldwide.

Philips on Monday said in a statement that it will take immediate actions to restore its performance, including immediate layoffs of about 4,000 employees worldwide, and expected charges of about 300 million euros in the next few quarters.

Based on Philips' 78,000 employees last year, the layoffs represent more than 5% of the company's workforce.

In the statement, Philips posted revenue of 4.3 billion euros for the third quarter, with a 5% comparable sales decline.

Philips noted that the main reason for the decline was supply chain issues, which impacted product deliveries as well as customer installation business.

At the same time Philips' sleep and respiratory care business will record an impairment of 1.3 billion euros due to the Philips Respironics recall.