[LINK] QANTAS moving IT staff to India. Any ACS response??

[Stilgherrian]

On 9/2/07 7:00 PM, "grove at zeta.org.au" <grove at zeta.org.au> wrote:
> On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, steve jenkin wrote:
>> Anyone know if the ACS has a response to QANTAS talking about moving
>> ~350 IT jobs to India??
> 
> Is the move to outsource supposed to be about quality or about cost?
> 
> If the problem is quality, then why aren't local workers good enough
> and what makes outsourced workers that extra special?
> 
> If it is about cost, what makes outsourcing better when the
> project is spiralling out of control and outsourced project
> management is often a criteria in the blowout, often leading
> to lack of quality?
> 
> Why do the corporates choose cost over quality, when in the long
> run, outsourcing actually costs more?

Devil's advocate time...

Let's pick an example position, say, a network engineer to maintain Qantas'
doubtlessly-vast data network. Much of that work can be done from any
Internet-connected computer on the planet -- and indeed wasn't the whole
*point* of the Internet to be able to do just this? Work on any computer
from anywhere?

So, if there are two suitably qualified and experienced candidates, one of
whom is sitting in a chair in Coogee and demands $85kpa, and another sitting
in Mumbai who asks for just a fifth of that, which one should Qantas pick?

Or, to put it another way, what's so goddam special about the Australian
network engineer that means they should be paid five times the going global
market rate for their services?

"I'm better because I'm Australian and they're Indian" is really nothing but
racism -- so I'm hoping that's not the response.

Saying "They shouldn't steal 'our' jobs," while we buy cheap consumer goods
made with their cheaper labour rates, and denying them access to a better
life while we squander the planet's resources is nothing but greed and
hypocrisy.

Where does *that* sit with the ACS's charter of ethics?

Is it that we're happy to chant "We're on one planet, we're all in this
together" when it's about climate change, but when it comes to other issues
we're still more than happy to raise the razor wire and say "Oh, no, that's
OURS?"

And now I'll duck for cover... :)

Stil


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