San Francisco university lays off IT workers, jobs head to India
San Francisco university lays off IT workers, jobs head
to India
By Rory Carroll February 28, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The University of California,
San Francisco on Tuesday laid off 49 information technology (IT) employees and
outsourced their work to a company based in India, ending a year-long process
that has brought the public university under fire.
The university announced the plan last July as a way to
save $30 million over five years. The University of California system, which
includes health care and research-focused UCSF, has been struggling to raise
revenue and cut expenses.
Globalization and outsourcing have become hot-button
political issues in the United States, as more employers cut costs by farming
out work to low-cost workers in far-flung parts of the world. President Donald
Trump campaigned on promises to restore lost U.S. jobs and to penalize
companies that move factories overseas.
This was the University of California's first
outsourcing, said a spokeswoman who added that the layoffs were necessary due
to rising costs of technology. In addition to the 49 staff layoffs, another 48
positions that were vacant or filled by contractors were eliminated.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein last year said the
university had a responsibility to keep jobs in the United States and pledged
to seek reforms to stop domestic jobs being outsourced.
Kurt Ho, 58, a laid off systems administrator, carried a
box of his personal items with an American flag draped over it, and said the
university's decision will hurt service for a medical staff that relies on a
smoothly running and secure computer network.
"It's a downgrading of services and a slap in the
face for the customers," said Ho, who has worked in IT in the Bay Area for
25 years. He said he plans to look for a job but worries that outsourcing of IT
services is a growing trend.
Last year UCSF entered into a $50 million contract over
five years with India-based HCL Technologies Ltd to do the work.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll, editing by Peter Henderson
and David Gregorio)
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