Chapter 7, Problem 1EA

Training IT Replacements

Recently the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) announced it would lay off more than 80 IT workers and outsource their jobs to India. This change part of a larger plan by UCSF to increase its technology outsourcing, which over time could save the organization more than $30 million. A large part of UCSF's IT work focuses on its hospital services, and many other health care facilities have already outsourced these types of "back-end" jobs to foreign countries.

Working through a multinational contractor that will manage the outsourcing process, UCSF has also asked workers who will soon be out of a job to train their overseas replacements via videoconferencing calls to India. One such worker remarked, "I'm speechless. How can they do this to us?"

A UCSF spokesperson explained that the organization provides millions of dollars in charity care for the poor, and that to continue providing those services, the school has to focus on more specialized tech work related to patients and medical research and send other IT work overseas.

UCSF is not alone in sending IT jobs overseas and making the laid-off workers train their Indian replacements. Recently Manpower Group, a staffing and workforce services firm with more than 3,000 offices worldwide, issued pink slips to 150 workers in Milwaukee whose jobs were outsourced to India.

Using a web search tool, locate articles about this topic and then write responses to the following questions. Be sure to support your arguments and cite your sources.

Ethical Dilemma: Are UCSF and other companies justified in outsourcing technology jobs to India? Do they have any obligation to find other jobs or provide training for displaced workers? Should organizations ask employees who are being laid off to train their replacements?

Sources: Sam Harnett, "Outsourced: In a Twist, Some San Francisco IT Jobs Are Moving to India," All Tech Considered, http://www.npr.org, accessed July 19, 201 7; Dan Shafer, "Exclusive: ManpowerGroup HQ Workers Being Laid Off Required to Train Overseas Replacements," Milwaukee Business Journal, https://www.bizjoumals.com, March 30, 2017; Bill Whitaker, "Are U.S. Jobs Vulnerable to Workers with H-IB Visas?" 60 Minutes, http://%%w.cbsnews.com, March 19, 2017; Louis Hansen, "After Pink Slips, UCSFTech Workers Train Their Foreign Replacements," The Mercury News, ttp://www.mercurynews.com, November 3, 2016.

Summary Introduction

To discuss:

Whether it is justifiable for the foreign companies to outsource tech jobs to India, or it is mandatory for them to find other jobs or provide training to the displaced workers, and whether the companies should ask their laying off employees to train their respective replacements.

Introduction:

Outsourcing refers to the situation in which the companies outsource work to firms in foreign countries. The two main reasons for outsourcing are cheap labor and cost reduction.

Explanation of Solution

Large companies send their employees to foreign countries to handle the business in those countries. Tech giants and other MNCs go for outsourcing in the Asian continent because of cheap labor. After the recession of 2007-08, the companies in USA stopped hiring full time workers; instead, they started hiring freelancers for the benefit of their companies. This is known as gig economy.

Freelancers are a company's part-time employees. A company hires the freelancers on part-time basis, and once the work is over, the company can fire them.

In some cases, an organization can ask their laying-off employees to train their respective replacements. But, this is not a statutory obligation on the part of the laying-off employees to do the same. The company cannot force them to train their respective replacements.