Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group has set July 29 as a deadline for its 1,300 employees to move to Infosys, an Indian outsourcing contractor; or leave to search for new jobs. Vanguard is an investment advisor and the largest for-profit employer in the greater Philadelphia region.
Vanguard’s corporate headquarters is in Malvern, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Their transferred employees will move to comparable positions close to Vanguard’s offices in Malvern, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Scottsdale, Arizona. Between the three sites, Vanguard has about 18,000 employees.
The workers facing transfer include technology, client-administration and operations staff. This transfer is related to the fact that Infosys is replacing Vanguard’s aging computer-based record-keeping system with a remote, cloud-based platform.
Infosys has promised ex-Vanguard workers will enjoy similar pay and benefits if they stay over the next year, though they aren’t guaranteed a job. Vanguard is also offering a bonus equal to 25% of workers’ pay in the company.
But “Vanguard employees who will be re-badged as Infosys employees better start looking for new jobs as soon as possible because almost all of them will be let go after the 12-month commitment expires,” predicts Howard University associate professor Ron Hira.
Most of Infosys’ 240,000 global staff are based in India, and, according to Philadelphia Observer, much of the workforce may eventually be transferred there, enabling both companies to save due to India’s lower wages.
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