Office work outsourced for $2 an hour over the internet | Top Stories | News.com.au
PERSONAL assistants on the other side of the world are doing paperwork and administration for as little as $2 an hour for Australian small businesses, The Courier-Mail reports.
Overseas outsourcing is being taken to a new level over the internet, with businesses turning to online contractors to perform everything from IT to bookkeeping and accounting.
But the trend towards outsourcing, once the domain of big businesses such as banks, has alarmed unions and academics who fear it will slow wages growth and cost local jobs.
"Australian workers should be concerned by any moves to offshore jobs to cut labour costs, not only because it means fewer job opportunities at home but it undermines wages and conditions here," an Australian Council of Trade Unions spokesman said.
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"There are also question marks over whether quality control can be maintained through offshoring, and businesses need to be open with their customers that work is being performed outside of Australia."
Mike O'Hagan, who founded MiniMovers but now runs a small business as an international business speaker and mentor, says he has employed a personal assistant living in the Philippines through website odesk.com for the past year, at first paying $US2 ($2.21) an hour but recently raising that wage to $US6 an hour.
The PA handles personal correspondence, his calendar and other administrative duties and stays in contact via email.
"That is eight times her local rate of pay," Mr O'Hagan said. "That's equal to about $4000 in Australia. She's one happy little Vegemite.
"This is a job that I would have never employed an Australian to do. Being a worldwide business, I need a worldwide workforce.
"This is a massive change throughout the world. The world is just one big economy all connected together and that's a good thing, not a bad thing."
But the ACTU strongly disagrees: "It is totally misleading for any businesses to pretend that they are offshoring to help people in developing countries. They should be honest that the only reason they are doing it is to boost their profits."
More than 1500 Australians have signed on for work through oDesk, of 378,000 hopefuls worldwide.
Switchselect.com.au comparison website CEO Leon Hayes says he has sourced contractors through oDesk.
"To the people who are complaining: be proactive. Turn negative thoughts into positive and stop worrying about where your next job might come from and start your own small business," Mr Hayes said.
His most recent job was done by a contractor in India for $US200. He says the same work would have cost him $5000 in Australia.
Mr Hayes pays writers between $US3 and $US4 an hour to collect news and rewrite it for his website.
"It has taken a year to find a group of six people to work very hard and deliver on time and on budget and we couldn't find that in Australia," he said.
"I do employ an Australian writer who has worked for The Age and other places, but she is $45 an hour.
"I don't think it is morally wrong to outsource because it's efficient and it gives the people actually applying through oDesk, and who have gone and bought themselves a cheap computer and put themselves through XYZ course, a job."
Sunshine Coast-based www.imarket yoo.com marketing consultancy owner Luke Selway says he uses online outsourcing to mop up excess work or for technical jobs outside his expertise.
"From a small business perspective, any strategy to bring down costs, especially in this economic day and age . . . is quite useful," Mr Selway said.
However, others raise concerns.
Author and Griffith University department of employment relations Associate Professor Bob Russell said global outsourcing might not be as cheap as it looks for employers in the long-term.
"There are security issues and trust issues so the costs of supervising this kind of work is much higher when it is outsourced," Prof. Russell said.
"Companies would have to hire internal supervisors just to monitor outsourced workers. How unproductive is that?"
