Microsoft shifting jobs to India office

In a move that may provoke more debate over exporting technology jobs, Microsoft is moving some support work done in Sammamish, Texas and North Carolina to a new office in India.

Exactly how many jobs will be affected is unclear but a local union, citing information from current and former workers, claims hundreds of jobs will be lost.

Microsoft has not yet decided how many people will be affected, spokeswoman Stacy Drake said. "There may be some impact in the next year on our U.S. sites," she said.

Further details won't be known until after the company tests a support center that opened in April in Bangalore, India, she said.

"We are continually evaluating opportunities in international markets that will allow us to improve the reach of our technical support worldwide," she said.

Likely to be affected by the changes are support centers in Sammamish, Las Colinas, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C. Each employs about 800 people.

The centers are part of the Product Support Services division that replies to calls and e-mails from customers seeking help with Microsoft software.

Microsoft is a latecomer to India, where U.S. technology companies such as Oracle and Sun Microsystems have, for years, taken advantage of the skilled workers and relatively low wages.

It's also routine for big companies in most industries to move customer-support work to places with cheaper labor.

But given Microsoft's high profile, its overseas expansions have been scrutinized and used as a rallying point for unions trying to organize tech workers.

In addition to the support center in Bangalore, where it is hiring 150 people, Microsoft is expanding an engineering center in Hyderabad and hiring Indian software companies to perform noncritical work.

The support-center changes are being disclosed this week by Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or WashTech, a subsidiary of the Communications Workers of America. In a news release it's issuing today, it claims Los Colinas is losing at least 800 jobs.

"This information completely contradicts Microsoft's public position that the impacts of their focus on sending work abroad is not going to affect its U.S. employees," said Marcus Courtney, WashTech president.

"Clearly, Microsoft is starting to cut its U.S. work force and send work abroad in order to slash its labor costs."

Courtney said his information came from several Microsoft employees and temporary workers. They estimated more than 800 jobs will be lost because they believe Microsoft is planning to sublease one of two buildings it owns at Los Colinas, in an area of high-tech companies north of Dallas.

Drake said "there are no plans at this time" to sell or lease either building in Los Colinas and the 800 jobs figure has never been used internally at the company.

"There have been no decisions made," she said.

One of WashTech's sources is Corey Goode, a temporary worker at Los Colinas whose contract ended last Friday.

Goode said he was mistakenly included on a conference call two months ago with managers discussing the job cuts planned at Los Colinas and Charlotte.

"That's when they talked about closing down certain contracts in North Carolina and Los Colinas and they were talking about the transition going smooth and on schedule and things like that," he said.

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687

Information in this article, originally published July 1, was corrected July 2. Microsofts product support center in Texas is in Las Colinas, which was spelled incorrectly in a previous story.