I thank the post-er Ramya for putting this up.
While not being critical of their opinion or being judgemental, and agreeing with the comments above, and their right to have their own opinion on an issue; I feel dismayed and disappointed, even appalled at the reaction; or rather the lack of it !!
Mr. Divekar readily accepts that Wage differential is justified or rather the crux of the advantage that India has in Outsourcing.
Mr. Saswat seems satisfied that its a case of firing of an Spanish employee, and not an Indian employee; and there is no angle of the matter pertaining to India or Indians.
While I don't wish to be critical of their own viewpoints; however; what I wish to point out is that - this case is different and unique !!
(Unique because a manager from Ireland working for an American company, in Spain has been fired over his support for an Indian engineer who was called or transferred to US!! The number of countries involved can be seen !!)
This is not a case, where the work has been OUTSOURCED TO INDIA and within India.
This is a case, where an Indian engineer working in India, is transferred by the Company itself to its office in California, USA.
Its not a case where an Indian Company is sending its employee ON DEPUTATION to an American company in USA; known colloquially as BODY-SHOPPING, something that can be aptly translated in Hindi as "Bandhua Mazdoor" or Bonded Labour !!!
In such cases, one can understand that Indian companies take advantage of Outsourcing by offering low salaries to its employees, which are adequate in terms of Indian salaries.
Here, the question is - IN AN MNC, WHEN EMPLOYEES ARE TRANSFERRED FROM ONE NATION TO ANOTHER; WHAT SALARY SHOULD THEY BE PAID for similar work and designation ???
If an American is sent to INDIA; would he be paid SALARY AS PER INDIA ??
Would not an American DEMAND SALARY as per his American standard or what he was getting there ??
So he would definitely go in for SALARY in India or USA, whichever is Higher !!!
Similarily, If an Indian is TRANSFERRED TO USA; should he get a bit higher than hiss INDIAN SALARY; or similar to WHAT HIS COLLEAGUES IN USA are getting ???
These are very IMPORTANT QUESTIONS !!!
Apart from ECONOMIC or Business implications; these also have geo-political implications.
This question becomes more important when we consider that day by day the number of MNC working in overseas countries are increasing.
Fortunately, or unfortunately for we Indians, there has been a recent high-profile case of an officer of Indian Foreign Service - a diplomat; wherein the question of paying Minimum Wages to employees, as per the rule of the land; has come into limelight. This again questions the Compensation packages to be paid to employees of one country in the country where they are working.
Since Reward and Compensation planning is an important aspect of HRM, even though an average HR may not have much involvement in it esp. in cases of Trans-national employees; it would be worthwhile to explore and study.
Very recently in CiteHR, there was a thread wherein an HR from Textile and garment industry was looking for Bangladeshi workers. Also, there was a thread where in a Recruitment Consultants had advertised for jobs for Vietnamese workers.
It is also well-known that Chinese technicians and engineers are routinely coming down to India in Infrastructure Projects.
We need more introspection and views from more and more senior HR professionals on this issue. As such issues shall be gaining importance in the coming years as boundaries between countries keep on disappearing and more and more employees keep on crossing the doorways.
I request a bit of brain-storming and more views and opinions on this.
Warm regards.