Three weeks after announcing it would cut 350 jobs at two plants in Israel, generics producer Teva has trimmed the number back to 285. The company said it will only eliminate 65 jobs at its facility in Neot Hovav instead of the 175 initially planned.

The drugmaker is standing by the 175 cuts planned at Kfar Saba, which manufactures the blockbuster MS drug Copaxone. Since the announcement at the beginning of the month, it has encountered resistance from its workforces as well as the Israeli political sector. Lawmakers suggested that Teva might want to reconsider its plans for 350 redundancies or risk losing the special tax breaks, the news agency Bloomberg reported.

Talks with unions at the two sites were tense, according to various reports. While the company was able to reach an agreement for employees at Neot Hovav, it was – despite  earlier hopes – unsuccessful at Kfar Saba.

Teva’s job cuts in Israel are a drop in the bucket compared with the 7,000 positions it intends to slash worldwide as it presses ahead with plans to close 15 plants over the next two years, including six yet this year and nine next year.  It also has announced it will quit 45 regional or national markets by the end of this year as generics prices continue to deteriorate. Teva is regarded as the world’s biggest player.

The company’s woes come from a failure in management decisions, Eliran Kozlik, chairman of the trade union at Kfra Saba told Bloomberg, adding: This is a very big ship, but there is no captain to steer it.”  Following the abrupt departure of Erez Vigodman in February, Teva still does not have a permanent chief executive. Yitzhak Peterburg is acting CEO.