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posted by on Sunday March 05 2017, @10:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the surprised-there-was-not-a-gag-order dept.

At the University of California's San Francisco campus, 79 IT employees lost their jobs this week, some of them after explaining to their replacements at Indian outsourcing firm HCL how to do their jobs.

The union representing the employees, University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, says it's the first time a public university has offshored American IT jobs.

In a statement sent yesterday, UPTE-CWA says the layoffs could spread, since the HCL contract can be utilized by any of the 10 campuses in the University of California system, the nation's largest public university. "US taxes should be used to create jobs in the US, not in other countries," said Kurt Ho, a systems administrator who was quoted in the union's press release. Ho was required to train his replacement as a condition of getting his severance pay.

In its statement on the matter, UCSF says that it was pushed to hire outside contractors due to "increased demand for information technology and escalating costs for these services." The university says it will save more than $30 million by hiring HCL, after seeing IT costs nearly triple between 2011 and 2016, "driven by the introduction of the electronic medical record and increased digital connectivity."

The university says 49 UCSF employees were laid off, and it will eliminate another 48 jobs that are currently vacant or filled by contractors. "UCSF will not replace UCSF IT employees with H-1B visa holders, nor will HCL," the university wrote in a statement e-mailed to Ars.

Of the 49 laid-off UCSF employees, 34 have either secured other employment or are retiring, the university said.

Source:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/public-university-lays-off-79-it-workers-after-they-train-h-1b-replacements/


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by KilroySmith on Monday March 06 2017, @12:36AM (4 children)

    by KilroySmith (2113) on Monday March 06 2017, @12:36AM (#475433)

    So they're going to eliminate 97 jobs, hire some H1-B visa holders to replace them, and save $30 Million? That means they're saving roughly $300K per employee. That's a pretty nice IT job...

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  • (Score: 2) by buswolley on Monday March 06 2017, @01:22AM (2 children)

    by buswolley (848) on Monday March 06 2017, @01:22AM (#475447)

    I guarantee you they weren't earning 300k. In any case it is a public record and you can look it up.

    --
    subicular junctures
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06 2017, @02:36AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06 2017, @02:36AM (#475464)

      You're right. As a rule of thumb I would divide that by at least two to get close to what the staff are getting paid.

      Even if someone's take home pay is around $100k, there's employer taxes and the value of tuition benefits and other advantages that come from being a university employee.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06 2017, @05:00AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06 2017, @05:00AM (#475494)

        As a rule of thumb it is

        Base rate +
        401k/retirement usually 18k-25k. Depending on rate and matching.
        10-20k for insurance. Used to be much lower but AHC...
        8-10k for SSI.
        All other taxes are picked up by the employee out of their base rate.

        To get to 300k would mean they were pulling in at least 250k each.

        Now they *may* be considering 'faculties'. But that is probably handwavy. As the replacements will need the exact same faculties.

  • (Score: 1) by Grayson on Monday March 06 2017, @09:35PM

    by Grayson (5696) on Monday March 06 2017, @09:35PM (#475815)

    I didn't see a time period listed there. It will save them $30 Million over how many years?

    Also, did that also include facilities costs (offices, etc.)?