About 120 employees from Waste Management Inc. are being laid off because their duties are being shifted to India, a report from the Arizona Daily Star says. The move could reduce company labor costs for those positions by three-quarters.
In a written statement, Waste Management of Arizona said sending jobs offshore “is about optimizing our back office processing functions” such as data entry and billing, the report says.
Company spokeswoman Janette Micelli said in an email to the Arizona Daily Star that Waste Management has 2,000 Arizona employees, so the transfer of 120 jobs amounts to about 6 percent of the labor force.
Internal communications to employees at Waste Management’s Consolidated Billing Center in Phoenix, obtained by The Arizona Republic, indicate the move is to begin this month, the report says. The emails mention that workers can earn retention bonuses if they remain on the job until they are laid off. The bonuses—from $2,000 to $8,000—are in addition to severance pay.
An economic development spokeswoman for Phoenix did not respond to a request for comment by the Arizona Daily Star on Waste Management’s employee shift, or on the impact that job offshoring has on the city.
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