Offshore employment

May 1, 2008, 5:03pm,  243 views

I don’t want to be seen as a bank basher, but can’t help it when I read reports like this one from Westpac.

According to AAP: Westpac says it intends to increase “offshoring”, but denied media reports today that it planned to shift up to 3000 back-office jobs to India.

“I haven’t seen any piece of paper with that kind of number,” Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly told analysts.

But Mrs Kelly said the bank would be keen to outsource functions if there was another business that could perform a function more efficiently.

“Will there be an increase in offshoring? Absolutely,” she said.

Comment: No numbers, but an affirmation that jobs will go offshore. If there are no Australians who can do the work, fair enough, but I suspect that’s not the issue.

The major motivation is almost certainly money. Labor is much cheaper in India and English-speaking Asian countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

It’s a global economy, sure. But Australian governments have a responsibility to protect Australian jobs and the Australian economy.

It’s time for regulation, I believe, to ensure if Australian companies employ people offshore to deliver services in Australia, then Australian award wages should be paid to those workers.

That’ll fix it.

And international banks operating in Australia should be required to employ Australian workers (or pay Australian wages to overseas workers) to deliver services in Australia.