Tech & Biz

IBM Offers To Relocate Laid Off Workers to India: Project Match

by TDH | February 3, 2009 at 10:34 am

1352 views | 1 Recommendation | 8 comments

Aftern laying off more than 4000 workers in Canada and the United States since January, IBM has announced "Project Match," a relocation initiative that will send the recently separated employees to developing markets such as China and India.

Under Project Match IBM will apparently provide moving, visa, and immigration support to allow for an 'easy transition.'

"IBM has established Project Match to help you locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where your skills are in demand," IBM says in an internal notice on the initiative. "Should you accept a position in one of these countries, IBM offers financial assistance to offset moving costs, provides immigration support, such as visa assistance, and other support to help ease the transition of an international move."

The catch, of course, is that workers will then be paid in accordance with the prevailing wages and norms of their new country, i.e. pennies on the dollar. IBM claims that this program affords those who want to gain "life experience" and visit developing countries the opportunity to do so, while opponents of the project see it as merely the offshoring of more American jobs.

An IBM spokesman said the program shouldn't be seen in that light. "It's more of a vehicle for people who want to expand their life experience by working somewhere else," said the spokesman. "A lot of people want to work in India."

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soraiadigital

at 14:21 on February 3rd, 2009

I was made redundante in Ireland, after they moved my position to India, and I received no offer at all, or any of my colleagues which job was moved to India. We were only 800, Canada and US had 4000, is that the reason?

Even for local salaries and conditions, all employes should have received an offer. I believe it was the least they could do....

I had 3 years in the company currently was system specialist, and I was invited to go to India for 3 weeks to train the person that was going to take my job, a person recruited from the street with call centre experience.... please, we only asked to be respected! and they failed to deliver........

In the past I had a good impression about the company, but not anymore...... they need management skills, not just people being paid as manager that like to drink coffee and go to meetings chat about the weather.....

Amy Judd

at 14:22 on February 3rd, 2009

That is sad. Sorry to hear that.

srivraj (not verified)

at 03:46 on February 10th, 2009

Do you really know the person who was recruited in India was from the street with call centre exprience? I know the pain with jobs moving overseas but one has to change their attitude as well when they see the people from overseas. They are probably more qualified then their counterparts in US or Europe because in India the company still follows very strict guidelines in terms of recuriting. All the IT major companies hire people in IT industry with engineering degree and in that majority of them don't hire candidates with second class degree.

Not everyone is talented but then it is same everywhere else. Microsoft's R&D center outside of US is only in India and is microsoft making any less standard product? IIT(indian institute of technolog) is one of the best engineering colleges in India and professionals from these institutes are offerred around $250,000 equivalent of Indian rupees in India by microsoft.

India has talent plus the main advantage what I see is for the companies is that there is no strict labour law. Majority of Indian IT companies like infosys, wipro etc have minimum 45 working hours per week. Most of the employees they work more than 60 hours a week and the management feels that the employees are not doing any favour.

Once a great corporation (not verified)

at 04:31 on February 6th, 2009

Learn the truth about IBM: http://www.endicottalliance.org/jobcutstatusandcomments.php Doing business with IBM is bad for the USA!

IT_NUT (not verified)

at 11:53 on February 7th, 2009

A young man or woman returns from overseas armed forces service. He or she gets some education in what everyone says is the field to go into, IT, and then gets a job with IBM. Now this person is told that essentially, he or she just isn't good enough to enjoy the benefits and privileges (for which they have sacrificed and maybe bled for). What they need to do is move away from their home and country and sacrifice some more. While IBM's CEO accrues enormous wealth, wealth created in part by the folks that are being asked to give up their lives, yet again. "Not all workers are happy..", how many workers has NPR communicated with about this issue?

sp3091 (not verified)

at 14:55 on February 9th, 2009

Hi I am an IBM Canada PDC employee, there is no layoff here, sorry to hear your situations. We discussed this case and figured out that in order to do massive out sourcing of project, those countries need to have compatible project experiences and management skills. This is the reason of such an action, not long from now on, I think we will see IBM heavily out source all the project in North America and Europe to the developing countries, so more people will loss job.

Crazy_Ed (not verified)

at 04:24 on February 10th, 2009

I work for the competitor (CA), I'm amazed that this is the way IBM treats their employees,

I'm afraid that this economic meltdown will generate “creative” ideas like the one above.

I have no other name to call it but a 'modern slavery' were the company’s leadership keeps on making millions of $ while exploiting their employees in countries like China were there are no human rights and no employee protection or right.

This is no different than the shoes sweat shops- the fact that we are talking about the prestigious IT field doesn’t change the basic facts.

Greedy managers at IBM want to exploit their employees even more:

pay them less money, no employee protection no rights, no benefits, and no pension.

This tendency is dangerous but I’m sure other companies will follow this idea.

dlrust (not verified)

at 14:55 on March 9th, 2009

I'm impressed that IBM is going to the trouble to help find their laid-off employees new jobs. They could have just walked them out the door without so much as wishing them "good luck".

I've been in technology related jobs for 20 years in a very roller-coaster industry (semiconductors). This is my 4th downturn. Layoffs of 30%-60% are common. Almost always, those affected are just left to twist in the wind.

Perhaps we spoiled-rotten Americans will finally figure it out - if you're willing to work for a lot less, you can keep your job. If you insist on getting paid 3x what you're worth, then good luck to you.