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from the training-how-to-be-outsourced dept.
Michael Hiltzik, a columnist with the Los Angeles Times, has some harsh words about UCSF's plan to outsource 20% of its IT staffing to the Indian outsourcing firm HCL Technologies:
Using a visa loophole to fire well-paid U.S. information technology workers and replace them with low-paid immigrants from India is despicable enough when it's done by profit-making companies such as Southern California Edison and Walt Disney Co.
But the latest employer to try this stunt sets a new mark in what might be termed "job laundering." It's the University of California. Experts in the abuse of so-called H-1B visas say UC is the first public university to send the jobs of American IT staff offshore. That's not a distinction UC should wear proudly.
UC San Francisco, the system's biggest medical center, announced in July that it would lay off 49 career IT staffers and eliminate 48 other IT jobs that were vacant or filled by contract employees. The workers are to be gone as of Feb. 28. In the meantime they've been ordered to train their own replacements, who are employees of the Indian outsourcing firm HCL Technologies.
[...] "The argument for Disney or Edison is that its executives are driven to maximize profits," says Ron Hira of Howard University, a expert in H-1B visas. "But UC is a public institution, not driven by profit. It's qualitatively different from other employers."
By sending IT jobs abroad, UC is undermining its own mission, which includes preparing California students to serve the high-tech industry.
"UC is training software engineers at the same time they're outsourcing their own software engineers," says Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), whose district includes much of Silicon Valley. "What message are they sending their own students?"
[...] Of course, if UCSF's initiative blows up in its face, the victims will be its patients, doctors and researchers. In running a university hospital, Laret told me, "you have to make some hard choices." That's indisputable, but the unanswered question is whether UCSF's choice will cost more than it saves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:07AM
"But UC is a public institution, not driven by profit. It's qualitatively different from other employers."
That doesn't mean that money doesn't matter tho. I dollar saved here or there is a dollar they can spend somewhere else.
While unfortunate is it really that big a difference from what many universities are doing when they let Google run their mail-servers? Which from what I understand it's quite common. Sure it's not eliminating the entire IT-staff but a couple of persons perhaps plus you are handing over all your students and staff emails to Google. So is it only bad when not-Google are doing things or is it the whole idea that you are going to have to get IT-support from Apu?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:20AM
Large universities use Amazon for their web sites now. Small universities have moved their entire web presence to Facebook already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:40AM
Citation or links please? I haven't seen either of these and I work with hundreds of universities (but most of them are mid-sized or large).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @05:17AM
An AC asking another AC to identify specific universities? Isn't it ironic. Why don't you just spam A/S/L and cyber?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by darkfeline on Tuesday January 10 2017, @08:48AM
Have you ever worked with Indian IT support? Using Google hosted email is leagues better than trying to get support for a Microsoft Exchange server from an Indian speaking broken English telling you to reboot your computer. I think it's reasonable for an organization to outsource their IT, as long as they aren't doing it blindly. However, for an institution of learning they should instead be hiring students. The students get paid, the students get hands on experience, the school gets cheap labor, the full-time IT staff get to work with relatively intelligent students (well, better than your average Indian front line support person anyway).
Before any SJWs get too excited, there's nothing inherently wrong with Indians, hell, Google hires Indians as first-class software engineers. But these are not the same Indians doing cheap outsourced IT support. They're cheap for a reason.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday January 10 2017, @12:46PM
They're cheap for a reason.
And extending the slap in the face 50 of the eliminated positions I'm sure required VERY expensive BS or MS degrees probably from UC itself, yet supposedly those jobs can be done by bottom of the barrel uneducated Indians with a month or two of training.
Its a display of degree inflation. Why can we demand a master degree for our receptionist? Because there's so many unemployed liberal arts degree holders that we can. Why do we have MSCS degree holders pulling cat-5 cable and terminating it as their primary job, well, because we can.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday January 10 2017, @05:13PM
2009 [informationweek.com]
See where wanting to get rich led you? Should have learned Six Sigma, now you don't know shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @10:53PM
Even if you've learned Six Sigma, you still don't know shit, but you at least have a POS certification that says you went through the marketing BS to get it.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday January 10 2017, @11:01PM
And you'd be suddenly employable by HCL working for peanuts.
Congrats, you realized it or not, a better life is no longer for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:44PM
why did you use the term SJW? you could have stated "anyone", because most people against outsourcing appeared to have voted for Trump; remember that whole TPP thing, and his rants about building cars in Mexico and threatening high tarfis?
You'd have come across as smarter if you didn't have to add a smear into your post. People have been upset with HCL, Indian outsourcing, and off-shoring of jobs in general, before the term SJW was ever coined for use to describe the Other people that may get offended by something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:23PM
If they wanted to save money they should have used grad students.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:24PM
Another aspect of this is security. For my small business, I think it's safer to hire Google to run email than managing my own server. I can even force everyone to use two-factor auth. Of course Google is becoming a bigger and bigger target for attacks, but emails shouldn't be that sensitive, given the modest security of the medium.
A rule of thumb might be to farm out public and not-so-sensitive IT stuff (web hosting, email, bulk storage) while keeping sensitive stuff (like patient records or design documents) in-house or encrypted.