BOI may transfer tendered jobs abroad

Shea O'Meara · 29-04-2010 10:36pm #1

Fears are today being raised for 200 jobs at Hewlett Packard.

The workers, who provide IT services to Bank of Ireland, were transferred to HP from their previous employment in the bank itself.

Now the contract for the Bank of Ireland work has been put out to tender, and the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) claims that tenders from two other interested parties involve exporting the work overseas where staff would be paid considerably less than their Irish counterparts.

http://news.eircom.net/breakingnews/17773520/

Is this not some kind of blackmail, if the workers don't take less salary, the bank we bank rolled will shift work outside of the country?

slimjimmc · 29-04-2010 11:21pm

Of course it's blackmail, the same type that has goes on every day even in ye olde tymes when man was trading flint axes and spears. If you want someone to buy something from you then you better make sure it is either better or cheaper, or both, than the competitions.

If HP want the contract then they'll need to make what they offer BoI it's better (eg. additional services) or cheaper or both. How they achieve is up to HP, it could involve cutting profit (unlikely) or cutting costs which usually means jobs and/or pay. BoI only want to get a service that meet their needs for the least cost. The fact that BoI are being supported by the tax payer shouldn't change this.

I'm not suprised at this as it was obvious it was going to happen come renewal time, but it is unfortunate timing for those affected.

Liam Byrne · 30-04-2010 1:52am

If FF had any cop on when they bailed BoI out, they'd have put in a few rules about supporting Irish jobs.

Goolay · 25-05-2010 4:47pm

Update:

http://www.techcentral.ie/article.aspx?id=15077

helimachoptor · 25-05-2010 4:49pm

A friend of mine works there, some interesting times coming up. If they are off shored to India there'll be quite a hullaballo about it i'd say.

3DataModem · 25-05-2010 4:49pm

Edit - already covered elsewhere.

BehindTheScenes · 25-05-2010 5:24pm

helimachoptor wrote: »

A friend of mine works there, some interesting times coming up. If they are off shored to India there'll be quite a hullaballo about it i'd say.

I wouldn't agree that there will be much of a hulabaloo. I'd say that people will be annoyed for a week but then will resign themselves to accepting it. The government will step in and say that BOI is a private entity and may do as they wish. As a large shareholder they are hoping that they do return to profitability as quick as possible.

Sadly 200 new faces down the dole office.

Fratton Fred · 25-05-2010 11:50pm

TBH OP, it wouldn't make much difference if the HP workers earnt €5 an hour or €25, the overall cost base in India is so much cheaper that an employee in Bangalore would cost around €200 per day less.

I've offshored IT development work before and reduced the day rate from €600 to about €150.

Its not Irish workers that can't compete, it is Ireland (as well as the UK, France, Germany etc).

What are companies to do? There is ever increasing pressure to reduce costs in order for the company to survive, they have to use every opportunity they can.

Tea drinker · 26-05-2010 12:04am

These workers are HP employees, but subject to TUPE rules on outsourcing, so still on the same terms of contract as the BOI one, unless they relinquished them.

They are not part of a bailout, but even so are valuable jobs in the Irish economy. BOI job here is to get the cheapest price for IT services. HP's is to get the contract for the maximum money, then deliver the cheapest possible service. The people are not really relevant, that's how companies work.

People who kept pushing house prices up are responsible for our loss of competitiveness. Of course, the politicians now bellowing about "De jobs!" were part and parcel of that cartel, and ironically the bank too of course.

gurramok · 26-05-2010 12:05pm

Its like a carbon copy of what happened at Xerox. Xerox outsourced 900 jobs to IBM who in turn shipped those jobs abroad to Bangalore, Sofia & Manila for example.

If IBM win the contract, expect the above to happen to these jobs.

gandalf · 26-05-2010 12:20pm

Its a shame I used to deal with the guys in the Computer Centre in Cabinteely and then with them when they were moved over to HP. They were an extremely professional bunch to deal with and always had a clear idea of what they wanted to do.

From my experience dealing with companies who have outsourced these functions abroad the user experience from IT in the organisations has diminished. In the short term the spreadsheets look better but I do not think it helps organisations meet their medium to long term goals.

Floppybits · 26-05-2010 2:03pm

gurramok wrote: »

Its like a carbon copy of what happened at Xerox. Xerox outsourced 900 jobs to IBM who in turn shipped those jobs abroad to Bangalore, Sofia & Manila for example.

If IBM win the contract, expect the above to happen to these jobs.

Same happened when O2 outsourced their IT to IBM. IBM then shipped all those jobs to India.

The question is though, are these companies getting value for money? Is their IT better than what it was before outsourcing?

I lived in England when they went through the whole outsourcing to India but it didn't really work because the ordinary folks refused to do business with banks that outsourced to India. So much so that companies actually advertise the fact that they now advertise that they have UK only call centres. Maybe this is something that Irish people need to do.

Sleepy · 26-05-2010 3:27pm

HP have themselves been shipping much of the work off-shore already and from what I know, tender or no tender, BOI are stuck with HP as the contract they originally signed with them has left them in a position where they're utterly reliant on them and changing providers would be next to impossible.

Mac daddy · 26-05-2010 6:25pm

Sleepy wrote: »

HP have themselves been shipping much of the work off-shore already and from what I know

What you know is incorrect, they have expanded services and brought in workers from Bartislava.

BOI may transfer tendered jobs abroad

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