Wage cutting 101

The University of Queensland is offering a one-day “outsourcing and offshoring” course to the heads of small and medium-sized companies. For only $979, participants in the Global Resourcing Phenomenon will be let in on the “learnings” of Aimee and Mark Engelmann, CEOs of a Brisbane-based outsourcing service provider, Beepo.

The Engelmanns’ two-year-old company has clients in marketing, accounting, finance, publishing, real estate, manufacturing, telecommunications and software development. Last year, Aimee Engelmann told the Courier Mail: “If … you cannot afford to pay $70,000, why wouldn’t you consider outsourcing? If it can be done in front of a computer, it can be done in the Philippines at one fifth of the cost”.

According to the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines, outsourcing is the country’s largest industry. In 2014, it was worth $18.9 billion. It is also the fastest growing industry there, growing at 15 to 18 percent every year, and employing more than 1 million Filipinos.

According to Beepo’s website, the Philippines has a “tertiary education system that provides approximately 250,000 graduates to the outsourcing industry every year”. Beepo employs 200 Filipino workers in a free trade zone that was formerly the US Clark military base near Manila.

Andrew Bonnell, UQ branch president of the National Tertiary Education Union, told Red Flag: “‘Offshoring’ has the effect of undermining working conditions, pay and job security for workers in Australia, and often does so in the offshore countries as well. It is a form of social dumping, promoting a race to the bottom in labour rights and working conditions”.

The offshoring instructional is one of a suite of professional development courses offered to business heads by the university. A course called Leadership for Executive Women aims to help executives “lead with courage” at a price of $6950.