University Of California Fires Their Entire IT Team To Save $30M, Outsources Jobs To HCL in India; Triggers Uproar Across US
Amidst Donald Trump led anti-immigration and anti-outsourcing rhetoric, a news about a simple outsourcing project in US has triggered unprecedented backlash and uproar among locals.
US citizens are angry that their jobs are being outsourced to India, and Indian H1-B visa holders are being asked to do their jobs, thereby bringing in unemployment for them.
University Of California’s Outsourcing Project Triggers Backlash
Based in San Francisco, University of California has decided to fire their entire IT department and outsource the jobs to HCL in India. Around 79 employees from the IT Dept., has been given pink slips, out of which 49 were permanent employees.
Although this is a very small outsourcing project, but the matter has picked up steam because University of California is a public university, and runs on taxpayers’ money. This is for the first time that a public University has vocally terminated its employees, and outsourced their jobs to India.
Some reports claim that a H1-B visa holder from India has been hired to work at the University, which has added fuel to the fire, prompting citizens to hold protests against this decision.
A fired employee, named Tan (aged 55 years) said, “Once you send out the manufacturing jobs, once you send out the service jobs, once you send out the research jobs, what’s left? There’s nothing left,”
Another fired employee said, “Usually, they outsource the low-paying jobs. But now they use H-1B (visa) and use foreign workers to replace the high-paying jobs. This trend is dangerous.”
University Justifies Outsourcing
In their defence, University of California administration has stated that they would be saving $30 million per year, due to this outsourcing of IT Dept.
A statement from the University said, “IT costs on the university’s clinical side nearly tripled between 2011 and 2016. This growth rate is not sustainable.”
It is a well-known fact that outsourcing does help to save money; but being a public university, this recent case of outsourcing has gained attention from across the country.
Terminated Employees May Sue University of California
Some reports claim that the terminated employee may sue the University over discrimination charges, and for stealing ‘American jobs’.
A group of 13 terminated employees have contacted a lawyer, and they are making plans to sue the University. However, in case they sue, then they won’t be able to get any severance pay. As per their lawyer, the employees would be suing in the next 30-60 days.
University administration has claimed that every employee who was asked to leave, was given 6 month notice period, along with severance pay. They are also helping them to find jobs in other educational institutions, and out of 49 permanent employees, 32 employees have already received job offers.
Will Trump administration take notice of this ‘incident’, and introduce even stricter regulations to stop outsourcing?
Can this case will turn into a watershed moment for the entire outsourcing industry in India?
We will keep you updated as more details come in..
