In the debate over high-technology work migrating abroad, there has been widespread agreement on at least one thing: The jobs requiring higher levels of skill are the least at risk. \nRoutine software programming and testing jobs, analysts agree, are the ones most susceptible to being grabbed by fast-growing Indian outsourcing companies. By contrast, the people who devise the early blueprints for projects -- the software architects -- have been regarded as far less likely to see their jobs farmed out. \nBut Microsoft contract documents show that as far back as 2001 the big software maker had agreed to pay two Indian outsourcing companies, Infosys and Satyam, to provide skilled "software architects" for Microsoft projects. The documents were obtained earlier this month by WashTech, an organization of technology workers based in Seattle, which gave copies to The New York Times. \n"The policy prescription you hear from people again and again as the response to the global competition of outsourcing is for Americans to move to high-end work," said Ronil Hira, an assistant professor for public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology. \n"It's important to dispel the myth that high-end work is immune to offshore outsourcing," he said. \n"What is not clear," Hira added, "is how much of that high-end work will go abroad." \nA Microsoft spokeswoman, Stacy Drake, said that as a matter of policy the company did not comment on individual contracts with suppliers. But, she said, "We often use outside companies for projects." \nThe outside contractors, Drake said, are used to bring in specialized expertise Microsoft may not have in-house or to bring additional technical support onto a project. \nStill, Drake said, building the "core intellectual property" in Microsoft products is left to full-time company employees. \nThough definitions vary, software architects are highly skilled workers who often earn six-figure salaries in the US. The Microsoft contracts with Infosys and Satyam show that the work of software architects, senior software developers and software developers was being done by employees of the Indian companies working at Microsoft facilities in the US. \nTheir work did not come cheap for Microsoft, which was billed US$90 a hour for software architects, or at a yearly rate of more than US$180,000. Senior software developers were billed at US$72 an hour and software developers US$60 an hour. \nThe on-site work, said Hira, an expert on offshore outsourcing, is usually done by Indian software engineers who come to the US on H-1B visas, which allow foreign workers to be employed in the US for up to six years. \nThe Indian workers themselves are paid a fraction of what their employers collect. The top annual salaries paid by Indian outsourcing companies to Indian software experts working in the US are US$40,000 or so, Hira said. \nThe contracts also say that for short stints of work, less than 90 days, Microsoft will pay for round-trip economy airfare for travel between India and the US. \nThe contracts also include work done in India, by project managers and by software development and testing engineers. The billing rate for this work ranges from US$36 an hour to US$23 an hour. \nA spokeswoman for Infosys said the company did not comment on its contracts, and a Satyam spokesman could not be reached. \nCritics of the outsourcing trend regard such agreements with Indian contractors, with work done both in the US and in India, as a step toward shifting more and more skilled technology jobs overseas. \n"Microsoft has hired vendors whose whole reason for being is to transfer work offshore," said Marcus Courtney, president of WashTech, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America. \nThe foreign competition for work at Microsoft, Courtney said, will help the company's management put more pressure on wages for its American workers and reduce employee benefits. Last month, Microsoft announced that it planned to cut costs by an estimated US$80 million a year by trimming prescription-drug benefits, tightening parental-leave policies and making it more expensive to buy Microsoft shares through the employee stock purchase plan. \nDespite its use of foreign contract workers, Microsoft expects to add 3,000 to 3,500 full-time employees to its US payroll of 37,000 in the fiscal year that ends next month.
CAUTION URGED: Strong winds and heavy rain are forecast throughout the nation, even though the CWB was not sure whether the eye would make landfall in Taiwan The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Chanthu, as it continued to gain power while approaching Taiwan from the southeast. As of 8pm last night, Chanthu was about 410km southeast of Pingtung County’s Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost point of Taiwan proper, moving northwest at 15kph toward the Bashi Channel. The typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 209kph, with gusts of up to 263kph, bureau data showed. Chanthu, which is likely to come closest to the nation over the weekend, could pose a threat throughout Taiwan proper, but particularly in Taitung and Pingtung, the bureau said. Strong winds and heavy
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
‘RAISING TAIWAN’S VISIBILITY’: Premier Su Tseng-chang said changing TECRO’s name to include ‘Taiwan’ would make the representative office more recognizable The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined comment on a Financial Times report that the name of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington might be changed, saying only that bolstering and upgrading ties with the US has been the government’s long-term objective. The ministry made the comments after the UK-based newspaper reported on that US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering allowing the government to use the word “Taiwan” in the office’s title. The US is “seriously considering a request from Taiwan to change the name of its mission in the US capital from ‘Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’ [TECRO] to ‘Taiwan
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