Kansas City Star corporate parent McClatchy laying off 120+ IT workers, sending their jobs to a Bangalore company
The McClatchy Company — whose 30 or so newspapers include The Kansas City Star — is back on media watchers’ shit list, thanks to an internal memo that ended up in an unlikely place yesterday: Computerworld’s website. The long-troubled company is once again eliminating personnel in an effort to stop its Wall Street bleeding; McClatchy’s latest quarterly report shows another net loss, and the company’s shares were trading at $1.10 as of noon today
This time, the people being sent packing are an estimated 120 to 150 IT workers, some of whom are now training their own replacements. The leaked memo says this mass firing is a result of an outsourcing contract with a Bangalore, India, company called Wipro.
In the memo, which Computerworld says was sent to McClatchy IT employees in late March, McClatchy CEO Patrick Talamantes wrote that he was “pleased” to announce the Wipro contract. Computerworld quotes Talamantes, who was named CEO three years ago and was paid an estimated $1.6 million in 2015, explaining in the memo that Wipro would be involved with “our new IT Transformational Program, a program designed to provide improved service to all technology users, accelerated development and delivery of technology solutions and products, variable demand-based technology resources and access to modern and cutting-edge skills and platforms.” The cheerleading continued with a pledge that the McClatchy-Wipro alliance “will improve technology standards and service levels.”
Toward the end of the memo, Talamantes unleashed various R words: “As we embark on the implementation phase, there will be a realignment of resources requiring a reduction in McClatchy technology staff. While regrettable, this action is necessary for us to realize the benefits outlined above and help the company achieve its long-term goals.”
A follow-up story at Computerworld reports that the Wipro contract involves at least one “H-1B dependent” job: a stateside position to be filled by a foreign worker with a specific visa. Oh, man, wait till Donald Trump hears about that.
Computerworld reports that McClatchy has refused to comment for its stories. As of this writing, McClatchy’s newspapers have yet to report on the layoffs.
