Dublin Xerox workers who find that a new position will be unavailable at IBM following the strategic outsourcing will be offered a “generous and fair redundancy package” by Xerox, according to an internal communication seen by siliconrepublic.com.
As the IDA worked tirelessly yesterday to save as many of the 900 jobs being outsourced to IBM by Xerox, the company sent an official communication to employees outlining the schedule for the transfer of jobs to IBM.
The communication revealed that the work could be further off-shored to Sofia in Bulgaria, Bangalore in India, Manila in the Philippines and Greenock in Scotland.
In early July, it emerged that Xerox, following a strategic review, awarded a substantial outsourcing contract to IBM that would see 900 out of Xerox’s 1,700-strong Irish workforce transfer to IBM but remain in their usual offices.
It was understood that if there were to be job losses out of the transferred workforce that these would occur through natural attrition rather than redundancy.
However, the internal communication reveals that work will be transferred from Dublin across to the various delivery centres in India, the Philippines, Scotland and Bulgaria in the next 12-18 months.
According to the document, a formal vendor selection process for the outsourcing began in October last year and out of 26 vendors that pitched for the project IBM emerged successfully out of a shortlist of seven candidates.
IBM was selected on the basis of its resources and capabilities as the world’s largest technology and services provider with integrated end-to-end capabilities.
Xerox’s Welcome Centre service will begin to move to IBM’s integrated delivery centres from the fourth quarter of this year and the intention is to complete this by the end of the second or third quarter of next year.
The finance division will begin to move to the new centres from the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year through to the first quarter of 2009.
The document states that employees that transfer to IBM will become IBM employees from 1 September and that they will be issued with transfer letters on 27 August.
“Current roles and responsibilities for transferred employees will remain the same on transfer to IBM,” it said with the same terms and conditions and in the same work location.
However, as the Xerox services are integrated into the various centres Xerox says IBM will work with the employees to identify new opportunities within IBM Ireland and the wider IBM organisation.
“In addition IBM will engage with recruitment partners on finding new opportunities in the external Irish or wider European marketplace for affected employees.
“Once employees transfer, IBM will proactively work on assessing skills and experience to enable the matching of longer-term opportunities as they arise,” the document stated, adding that one-to-one skills discussions will take place from September.
“If a new opportunity is unavailable, Xerox will provide a generous and fair redundancy package for all affected staff,” the document stated.
By John Kennedy
