[anal]

some1 deleted the article from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Outsourcing_-_'Other_side_of_the_white-collar'_By_Andrew_Miller_-_Human_Rights_Watch

this is the my computer cache one

Business Process Outsourcing - 'Other side of the white-collar' By Andrew Miller - Human Rights Watch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Arnold Subasinghe - Human Rights Watch

Virtusa an IT Services BPO firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with one of the Advanced Technology Centers in Colombo has experienced another death of an employee. This is the second death reported within last two years, though there have been past reports of casualties who have survived strokes also known as 'brain attacks'.


The company employs over 1000 employees in it's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Colombo and provides a challenging environment at work due to strict delivery deadlines demanded by US Clients. The company bills anything above USD 150 man day for a basic resource for IT services to US Clients, though only 10-15% is passed to the employees. The balance of expenses before earnings per share is incurred on maintaining a state-of-the-art Technology infrastructure and remunerating a Sri Lankan based ATC management at US Standard - Salary, Benefits and Perks.


The operational model demands at least 45 working hours per week, where project managers have strict guidelines to ensure employee productivity. The attitude towards employees has been disastrous in some cases; where in the past over 120 employees have been laid off within few weeks. Directly or indirectly forcing a permanent employee to resign at short notice from work has been a specialty area at Virtusa for the last 4 years.


Virtusa continues to apply various techniques to hire-at-will, and fire-at-will. Although the recruitment advertisements appearing Newspapers and websites look very enticing, scant regard has been paid to the statutory requirements of employing persons in Sri Lanka.


Some of the violations include manager-employee harassment and humiliation at work, getting signatures on official documents under force and duress, promotions and career success based on favoritism and acquaintance, and host of other violation of mandatory local statutory requirements.


The 1000+ workforce in Sri Lanka of which 70% are below project manager level, is hired from Universities in Sri Lanka. Virtusa conducts a well organized recruitment drive and allocates a significant budget for this purpose. Sponsoring at Career Fairs, Career Days etc. are some of the techniques proven to be effective in attracting fresh graduates into the workforce. Most of them join with promises given by the recruitment division which ranges from working abroad, branded career start, corporate image, market leading remuneration etc.


Role Stretching is a practice at Virtusa where an employee is encouraged to play the role of a senior person. The employee does not get any additional compensation for this exercise, but they are expected to work even harder and billed at a higher rate. The employee is given the expectation that, after playing the 'stretched' role, they would be subject to an early promotion. But this is hardly the truth, but only an enticement to work harder. There are several other deceptive and crafty techniques to obtain higher productivity from an employee.


The workforce predominantly consists of workers between ages 22-38 years with an average age of 30. Most of the workforce is from middle class families who have limited influence in society to expose or take legal action against violations committed by the more affluent Sri Lankan Management at Virtusa. Hence most of them silently suffer until they are tactfully drained out of their soul and spirit. Besides, any legal action against Virtusa could deprive an employee of a respectable career, subsequently, due to possible retaliation by the Sri Lankan Management.


Since BPO companies are on the increase in Sri Lanka, it would be prudent for the statutory authorities of Sri Lanka to investigate and monitor the operation of BPO companies particularly the level of compliance to Shops and Offices Act and the Industrial Disputes Act. It would also be useful for International Human Rights Organizations to monitor the level of treatment meted out to these white collar workers and devise a channel to listen to any stories and experiences that are worthy for investigation.


This article has been written in order to educate the plight of white collar workers in a typical BPO organization, so as to influence maintaining of checks and balances to ensure adherence to stringent statutory and Human Rights principles in treating Sri Lankan intellectual segment when selling knowledge services overseas.

[earthling]

Do we hav anyone working in virtusa here ? If we hav..then can that someone confirm or deny any of the aligations above ?

good article though

[homoelectronics]

Sirawatamada....hmmmmmmmm.....mamath ea paththe yanna try 1k denna hithan hitiye..

[sriflipflop]

can be happen because of two much work load

[Madu Ratnayake]

It has been brought to our attention that an article titled “Business Process Outsourcing – other side of the white collar” purportedly published by Human Rights Watch is in circulation.

Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org) have confirmed that they have not published said article, and have no connection with said author. We wish to reiterate that the memo is a fabrication and without merit.

Virtusa adopts industry leading HR practices and was recently awarded the “Gold award at the Sri Lanka National HRM Awards 2007” for being among the 10 best companies in people practices in Sri Lanka
(http://www.nation.lk/2008/03/16/busi6.htm)

For any of your queries on the subject, I will be available at [email protected]

Thanks

Yours sincerely,

Marc Hebert
Chief Marketing Officer
Virtusa Corporation
2000 West Park Drive
Westborough, MA 01581
Email: [email protected]

Madu Ratnayake
General Manager, Sri Lanka
Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd.
Sri Chittampalam A. Gardiner Mw.
Colombo 2
Sri Lanka
Email: [email protected]

[elakiri1]

Hi Madu,

When you say
"We wish to reiterate that the memo is a fabrication and without merit."
Do you mean that all its content is fabricated or only some parts?

It would be helpful if you can point out what is fabricated and refute those points with valid arguments like for example:

It's wrong to say "... only 10-15% is passed to the employees"
virtusa actually passes more than 40% of the amount it bills to customers.

or

It's wrong to say " The workforce predominantly consists of workers between ages 22-38 years with an average age of 30", the average age is actually 40 years.

Of course this is just a suggestion, since you obviously thought this important enough to refute this article in these informal forums and you consider the opinions and ideas of the forum members important enough to merit an official response.

I agree you are by no means obligated to reply anonymous articles such as these.

[earthling]

So acording to Madu's response.. That Article was probably written by a disgrunted Virtusa employee who got fired maybe ?

[elakiri1]

Madu's article doesn't tell us anything. Of course any company will deny an allegation like that in the article.

But at least give us some facts so we can form an opinion, don't just say this is all fabricated, when anyone can see that at least some parts must be correct.

Does anyone know anything about the 'death' mentioned in the article? At least that should be something we can verify.

Of course it should be obvious to anyone that the article is not from Human Rights Watch. There are probably lot worse exploitaion of workers in Sri Lanka if they are concerned. But it's interesting that Virtusa took the time to issue an official response and went to the trouble of even posting to forums. Maybe the article has some points that are valid??

[earthling]

Originally Posted by elakiri1

Madu's article doesn't tell us anything. Of course any company will deny an allegation like that in the article.

But at least give us some facts so we can form an opinion, don't just say this is all fabricated, when anyone can see that at least some parts must be correct.

Does anyone know anything about the 'death' mentioned in the article? At least that should be something we can verify.

Of course it should be obvious to anyone that the article is not from Human Rights Watch. There are probably lot worse exploitaion of workers in Sri Lanka if they are concerned. But it's interesting that Virtusa took the time to issue an official response and went to the trouble of even posting to forums. Maybe the article has some points that are valid??

Dont think we can count on Madu for replies or to get the real story (if there is one) as she is from Virtusa's management itself.. the best way is to hear from a person who is WORKING in Virtusa...

We have thousands & thousands of members here..not one from there ???

[elakiri1]

Originally Posted by earthling

Dont think we can count on Madu for replies or to get the real story (if there is one) as she is from Virtusa's management itself.. the best way is to hear from a person who is WORKING in Virtusa...

We have thousands & thousands of members here..not one from there ???

I'm not sure if that's a good idea. (of course giving comments defending the company may be ok). I have heard many cases of employees who got fired due to their blog postings. This is in the west, not Sri Lanka, but I guess the same could apply here.
eg: This mentions companies like google
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workpl...ogs-usat_x.htm