IBM offers sacked US, Canada workers jobs in India

It is still hush-hush, but IBM has a programme called ‘Project Match’ to help benched American and Canadian workers find jobs in India, China and other low-wage countries where it is still hiring.

American workers who leap at the vacancies across the Atlantic will have to move for local wages instead of yummy expat salaries.

However, a memo, which leaked to the press, assures US workers that IBM will try to smooth the transition; “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.”

IBM will match engineers with openings “in growth markets” where their skills are in demand, the memo adds.

IBM has axed nearly 5,000 workers in the US and Canada since January.

The memo indicates that these workers will now have a crack at jobs in IBM facilities in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Czech Republic, Hungary, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, South Africa, India and China.

John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, told DNA Money that Big Blue’s initiative signals the flattening of the world and how workers can, and must, adapt.

“It is another threshold in the movement towards a more global workforce. It could be a paradigm shift — it is a move away from substitute colonialism. It is so important for global companies to create this kind of equality,” Challenger told DNA Money.

“American workers could get fantastic work experience in an international market place. They might not make a lot of money in India or China, but they wouldn’t spend a lot of money either as living costs are lower,” he added.

Lee Conrad, national coordinator for Alliance@IBM, an offshoot of the unionist Communications Workers of America, slammed IBM’s plan.

“I was just shocked,” Conrad told a New York daily. “We hear a lot of talk about companies offshoring and shifting work, but this is the first time I’ve seen a company encourage employees to offshore themselves.”

“The people who might do it are people who have come from those countries. Some young people might do it just to see a different country, but to expect a senior IBM employee with a family to do it is not feasible,” Conrad added.

It is too early to predict whether more US companies will take a leaf out of IBM’s playbook, although everyone is watching closely. It is a given that the shoe will be on the other foot for Indian engineers who will now have to compete with foreign workers for jobs in India-based IBM software labs and computing technology centres.

InformationWeek indicated that the laid-off IBM engineers wanted to work mostly in India.