Nielsen hits back as outsourcing deal comes under fire
Share
US-- Nielsen CEO David Calhoun has been forced to defend the firm and its $1.2bn offshoring deal with India's Tata Consulting Services (TCS) from critics who accuse the TV ratings giant of handing “American jobs” to foreign workers.
Attention is focused on Nielsen's global technology centre in Oldsmar, Florida, where job cuts have been made in line with the company's cost savings initiative, which involves outsourcing IT and other operations functions to TCS.
Local media reports said cheaper Indian workers were coming in to replace those workers who had been made redundant, and criticism reached fever pitch late last month when outspoken CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs picked up the story for a special report entitled ‘Nielsen vs American workers'.
Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes, told Research: “They [TCS] do have some people in Oldsmar, but they are primarily filling positions that were previously held by other consultants.” Others are there temporarily for ‘knowledge transfer', he said.
“Altogether, we have eliminated or will eliminate by early 2009 about 280 positions,” said Holmes. Around 50 staff who lost their jobs with Nielsen have been offered the same position with the outsourcing company, he added.
Calhoun, meanwhile, wrote an open letter to the citizens of Oldsmar attacking “misleading” reports in the local press and defending the TCS partnership. He said the outsourcing company provided “expertise that we simply couldn't bring on our own”.
On the job cuts, he said: “While these changes will not dramatically affect total employment at our Oldsmar centre or other offices in the area, we appreciate that for any associate of Nielsen whose job is eliminated, this has a very serious impact. These are decisions that we do not take lightly.”
He added: “The overwhelming majority of our company's work in Oldsmar and elsewhere continues to be handled by Nielsen employees.”
Author: James Verrinder
Related links:
Nielsen efficiency drive continues with TCS partnership
Nielsen looks to TCS for ‘substantial savings'
