Indiana's Indians

Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 10:28 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Indiana's Department of Workforce Development is contracting with TATA
to develop a new computer system. This Computerworld article never
mentioned exactly what is being developed, but as reported on this
newsletter in September, "Hoosier Unemployment System "upgraded" by
TATA", they are hiring 65 Indians from TATA to upgrade their
unemployment computer system. There are so many unemployed people in
Indiana that their computer system can't handle the load. The article
also failed to mention that TATA will be offshoring part of the work to
India, so the job loss to Indiana residents is more than 65
programmers.

Indiana's state assembly claims that hiring TATA is part of a 10-year
plan to create 200,000 high-tech jobs in the state. Who do they think
they are kidding? Importing Indians for cheap labor on state contracts
is nothing less than a slap in face for every tech worker in Indiana
that is jobless. They shouldn't be allowed to call this "job creation".

Indiana is probably not even considering hiring it's own residents for
high-tech positions. Their list of hot jobs follows article. Notice
that computer programming doesn't even make it onto their top 20 list,
and yet their unemployment claims for the Week Ending 11/8/2003 is over
61,000!

I went to Indiana's job bank and was only able to find one job ad for a
programmer position. The ad has nothing to do with their unemployment
computer system. It appears that they are making no effort to hire
Indiana residents for computer/IT positions.

http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/consulting/story/0,10801,87183,00.html?SKC=news87183

Job agency hires foreign help

By Thomas Hoffman
NOVEMBER 17, 2003

An Indiana state agency chartered to help unemployed residents find

jobs began a controversial IT project this month with the U.S.
subsidiary of an offshore software developer, which plans to bring in
programmers from India to work on the project.
New York-based Tata America International Corp. will send up to 65 IT
staffers from India to work alongside 18 state employees over the next
two years at a government facility in Indianapolis. The team will
replace a tax and unemployment claims processing system that runs on
Unisys Corp. mainframes with a client/server application written in
Java, said Patrick Murphy, a deputy commissioner at the Indiana
Department of Workforce Development.

The DWD awarded Tata a $15.2 million contract last summer, and
development work began Nov. 4. But the contract has infuriated some
state legislators and Indiana residents, particularly because of the
nature of the work done by the DWD. "This is such an egregious example,
and many policy-makers find it baffling," said Jeff Drozda, a
Republican state senator.

Last month, Drozda filed a bill that would ban contractors from using
foreign workers on IT initiatives and other state projects. Similar
legislation has been proposed in other states, such as New Jersey and
Michigan. Drozda said he expects the state assembly's economic
development and technology committee to hold a hearing on the bill in
January.

The committee likely will also probe the procurement process that the
DWD used for the contract with Tata, Drozda said. "We've spoken to
several vendors who claim this contract was tightly written," he noted.

Drozda said that when some rivals of Tata asked for more information
from the DWD during the requirements-gathering phase, "they didn't
receive any feedback, as if this contract was written with one vendor
in mind."

The Bid Process

Murphy dismissed those accusations, pointing to an October 2002 letter
that the state sent to 84 companies located inside and outside of
Indiana inviting them to attend a prebid conference. The contract
process "followed Indiana code and all state laws," Murphy said. He
added that no Indiana-based companies bid on the project, although a
few showed an early interest in doing so.

Tata America, which is also known as TCS America and is a subsidiary of
Mumbai, India-based Tata Consultancy Services, has developed a similar
tax and claims processing system for the state of New Mexico. The other
finalists for the Indiana contract were Accenture Ltd. and Deloitte
Consulting. According to Murphy, Tata's proposal was $8.1 million less
than one of the rival bids and $23.3 million lower than the other one.

The project is part of Energize Indiana, a 10-year plan that was
approved by the state assembly last year and is aimed at creating
200,000 high-tech jobs in the state. Murphy said studies also suggest
that replacing the DWD's existing system could save the state up to
$360 million over 10 years, partly by speeding up the processing of
unemployment claims.

Tom DeMarco, a consultant at Cutter Consortium in Arlington, Mass.,
said he was sorry to hear that a U.S.-based jobs development agency had
opted to hire a firm that would bring in foreign workers to meet its
systems needs. But bringing Indian programmers to the U.S. is a better
long-term approach than moving the IT work offshore, DeMarco added.

"You can only move some of the work offshore, but the hard work -
conferring with stakeholders - should be done where the stakeholders
are," he said.

Jayanta Banerjee, regional manager at Tata's office in Indianapolis,
said it's too early to tell how many of the Tata employees who are
assigned to the DWD project will be workers from India with H-1B or L-1
visas. Tata plans to subcontract at least 5% of the work to Bucher &
Christian Consulting in Indianapolis and Nexor Technologies Inc. in
Troy, Mich., he noted.

Tata isn't obligated to pay the U.S. Department of Labor's prevailing
wages to L-1 visa holders who come from India to work on the project,
but it must pay those amounts to H-1B workers under U.S. immigration
laws, Murphy said.

Banerjee said Tata pays the same wages to comparably skilled workers in
the U.S. whether they're based here permanently or hold L-1 or H-1B
visas. The company's salaries "meet or exceed industry norms and the
Department of Labor's prevailing wage levels," he said.

Drozda also said he's worried that the IT workers Tata sends to
Indianapolis won't be paying federal or state taxes on their wages.

But Murphy dismissed that possibility. "Since they'll be living here,
I'm assuming those taxes will be paid," he said.

Indians in Indiana

What's involved: A $15.2 million systems development contract between
the Indiana Department of Workforce Development and Tata America
International.

Why it's controversial: A jobs development agency awarded a contract to
a unit of an offshore company. New York-based Tata plans to import up
to 65 IT workers from India to work on the project for the next two
years.

What's at issue: Whether the contracting process was fair.

http://www.in.gov/dwd/inews/lmi2014.asp?md=1&tp=01&go=01&lv=00&rg=000018&ic=&pr=&ds=0,1

Hot Jobs
Indiana Statewide, as of 11/16/2003
Rank Job Title Jobs Available

1 Production Laborers 764
2 Telemarketers, Door-To-Door Sales Workers 583
3 Production Helpers 509
4 Laborers, Landscaping & Groundskeeping 454
5 Assemblers (Factory Work) 414
6 Salespersons : Retail 323
7 Bakers, Manufacturing 298
8 All Other Machine Operators 270
9 Sales Representatives, Service 263
10 Bakers : Bread & Pastry 260
11 Other Sales & Related Workers 240
12 Cashiers, General 228
13 Janitors & Cleaners 220
14 Hand Packers & Packagers 219
15 Stock Clerks : Stockroom/Warehouse 214
16 Truck Drivers, Heavy 199
17 Nurse Aides, Orderlies, Attendants 179
18 Stock Clerks, Sales Floor 148
19 Truck Drivers, Light- Including Delivery 143
20 General Office Clerks 135

If you would like to apply for one of these Hot Jobs, click here for
the Customer Self Service System (CS3).

http://www.in.gov/dwd/inews/lmi2124.asp?md=1&tp=12&go=01&lv=00&rg=&ic=&pr=&ds=0,1,2,3

Unemployment Claims*

Week Ending - 11/8/2003 Week Ending - 11/1/2003

Total Claims 61,028

http://www.state.in.us/serv/sdp_jobbank

(This was the only IT job I could find in Indiana's job bank)

Please click on the title of the job you wish to know more about.

TITLE:
OPEN DATE: CLOSE DATE:
JOB CODE: POSTING-REQ:
ADDL INFO:

Software Sp 1 11/17/2003 11/21/2003

1AF1 0346 -037239
APPLY TO: INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, 100 N

SENATE AVE., INDIANAPOLIS, IN, 46204 ATTN: HUMAN RESOURCES E-MAIL
ADDRESS: JOBS@DEM.STATE.IN.US COMMENTS: Experience using ESRI GIS
products ArcGIS, ArcSDE, and ArcIMS, Knowledge of GIS development
projects, Knowledge of Trimble GPS Hardware and Software.

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