Age Discrimination, Indian-Style

theodp writes "In April, IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano told investors Big Blue hopes to dodge an estimated $6 billion in liability stemming from a judge's ruling that IBM violated U.S. federal age discrimination laws. In May, IBM closes on its $150-$200MM purchase of Indian outsourcer Daksh, whose age requirements for job applicants make Logan's Run seem progressive. On its Opportunities page, Daksh states that Customer Care Specialists should be between 21-25 years of age and Team Leaders should be no older than 27. Early Daksh investors included Citigroup and we-don't-need-no-stinking-unions Amazon."

Comments

story text is misleading

[poincare]

From the article: A judge ruled last summer the pension changes IBM made in the 1990s violated federal age discrimination laws. Palmisano said Tuesday IBM hopes to win the case on appeal and avoid an estimated $6 billion in liability.

IBM has discrimiated against older workers in the past, and they're buying a company that discrimiates against aged works now, but other than sharing the common feature of discrimination by big blue, these two events are unrelated.

Re:Retirement: Whoo hoo!

[challahc]

You could be a team leader for 2 years before the famine.

Anyone ever looked at job ads in Japan?

[dbleoslow]

Almost every job listed will have some sort of min/max age requirement. You could even be denied a job based on your blood type! Having type B blood puts you at a disadvantage from the start when looking for a job in Japan.

Re:India -- Democracy

[Serveert]

Every country has worker protection laws, even China. Does that mean they're enforced or are strong? No. American companies would never be allowed to list age limitations, yet Indian companies have no qualms. So, in this context, the protection laws in America ar stronger.

Re:Is this a problem?

[GileadGreene]

I can't really get especially mad if companies outsource to better workers

Better in this case equates to "same capability for less cost". Lower wages do not necessarily mean worse working conditions. In fact, from talking to Indian friends who have worked both in the US and in India the actual working conditions are equivalent. So why are you mad exactly?

Re:Nice theory, but...

[corporatemutantninja]

I didn't say "unaccented" I said "neutral accent" and there absolutely is such a thing. It's simply a language spoken without an identifiable regional accent, sort of an "average" accent. In the U.S. we have "newscaster English" which is neutral-American, and in the U.K. BBC newsreaders speak in neutral-British. In India they try to teach something which to American, UK, and Australian speakers sounds neutral. And they do a damned good job of it. I'm from Maine, and believe me they weren't talking "the people talk where I grew up." Ayuh.

And, I was "traveling a bit": I was observing an accent training class at Daksh in Mumbai two weeks ago.

Know of what ye speak.

Re:Nothing new here

[Satan's Librarian]

Definitely have to agree with you. Compared to conditions that the people building our cellphones and computers are living under, Indian support rep companies sound nice.

At the factories I worked at in one of the southern 'special economic districts', it seemed like they just provided crowded dormitories and food for the teenage girls working the lines. I guess they could have been paid in addition, but certainly not enough to allow for any kind of 'upwardly mobile' trend or savings.

Of course, on the other hand, it was sometimes hard to be too angry at the western companies, since it looked like the farmers in the surrounding areas in China had it a lot worse than those who worked in the factories. At least the girls working the lines got steady meals, a clean place to sleep, and some basic education (reading and writing abilities help productivity in high-tech factories quite a bit).

Being a wage-slave for a multinational corp must have looked like the best option to the many peasants as well, considering that I was told - when watching peasants being beaten by the side of the road by police and I asked one of our reps what was going on - that people without the right papers aren't allowed into the special economic regions but that they come anyway in hopes of slipping in and finding a job.