NEW YORK: Laid-off
programmers have filed a lawsuit accusing the US
Department of Labor of illegally denying them
job-training benefits available to workers in industries where
jobs have moved overseas.
The suit, which seeks
class-action status, was filed January 2 in the US Court of
International Trade in New York, said Michael G. Smith,
attorney for the plaintiffs. The suit wants a judge to order
the Labor Department to make laid-off software workers
eligible for weekly cash payments and other benefits under the
Trade Adjustment Assistance program.
In recent years, US
companies have laid off thousands of software workers
and other high-technology employees. At the same
time, companies are adding technology staff in India and other
developing countries where labor is inexpensive, in what's
known as " offshore outsourcing ." (Are US anti-BPO moves
politically motivated?)
Some displaced American
workers have turned to the Trade Adjustment Assistance program
for help. Begun in the 1960's, TAA was designed to soften the
blow to US workers of increased imports or transfers of jobs
overseas. Traditionally, workers in manufacturing have been
eligible for the benefits, which include vouchers for
job-training classes and cash payments after regular
unemployment compensation runs out.
But over the past two
years, the Labor Department has ruled many software workers
ineligible for TAA benefits. The Labor Department has said
software and information-technology services don't qualify as
products, or "articles," under TAA guidelines. Only workers
who made more tangible products, such as clothing and
furniture, can get TAA benefits, the department has ruled.
The lawsuit claims that
about 10,000 software workers in the United States should be
eligible for TAA benefits, but would be ruled ineligible under
current Labor Department practices.
Those that have been
denied benefits include former workers at International
Business Machines Corp., Electronic Data Systems Corp., Nortel
Networks Corp. and Motorola Inc., according to the lawsuit.
Labor Department
spokeswoman Lorette Post said the department doesn't comment
on pending litigation. Justice Department spokesman Charles
Miller said the department wouldn't comment because it hasn't
yet filed its response to the trade court.
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