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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.
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06 2017, @04:56AM (1 child)
You are making a terrrrrrrrible assumption. That they ever could run their own systems. Most of what has come out of acadamia is IN SPITE of the bureaucracy in place.
Back when I was 'in it'. The CS dept usually had its shit together with computers (usually). But get outside of it or the math dept and it was a total disaster. You would regularly run into PHD tenured professors who had no clue on how to turn their computer on much less use it. Its 'better' now as most of that sort has aged out. But running an IT system takes work and time.
This case is 100% a cost cutting move. Something acadamia is ALSO very good at. I took classes in one building that was built in 1938. The last renovation was in 1953. I graduated in 1994. Last I heard they gave up on the building and just flattened it around 2010. The computers I used were from the early 80s except for some 'lock and key' servers you could access through a green screen terminal. There are 2 things that get funding, sports and 'research'. Everything else is a cost to be trimmed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06 2017, @08:56AM
As long as by "research" you mean higher salaries for grant winners. Actual nose-to-the-ground researchers are cannon fodder.