WASHINGTON – Former Dell Health Care Services employees in Providence who lost their jobs when the work was outsourced to India were approved for two years of federal Trade Adjustment Assistance by the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline announced Wednesday.
The former employees had been working for Dell Health Care Services, under an account with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, performing tasks in information management, application development and maintenance, and claims in the health insurance industry, according to federal Labor Department documents.
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The exact number of workers who are eligible for benefits under this ruling is still undetermined because of the large number of sub-contracting firms involved in the Dell ruling, said Laura Hart, communications manager with the R.I. Dept. of Labor and Training.
Among the benefits and services that workers may be eligible for are job training, income support for up to two years, job search and relocation allowances, a tax credit to help pay the costs of health insurance, as well as a wage subsidy option for workers 50 years or older, Hart said.
The complaint, filed Nov. 9, 2010, by the R.I. Department of Labor & Training, applies to former Dell Health Care Services who lost their jobs on or after Oct. 30, 2009, according to the ruling by federal Labor Department official Elliot S. Kushner.
Kushner ruled on Feb. 10 that the former employees met the criteria to qualify for assistance under the law.
He found:
“Help is finally on the way for workers at Dell Health Care Services, who were unexpectedly laid off due to a shift in work to India,” said Cicilline. “As our nation continues to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have unfinished business in cleaning up our trade agreements so that they are fair to American workers who play by the rules but are all too often undercut by nations who choose to cheat in an attempt to get ahead.”
Laura Calenda, assistant vice president of corporate communications at Blue Cross, declined to answer questions about the decision, saying: “We can’t speculate about Dell’s staffing decisions.”
However, Dell Health Care Services is continuing to provide services to Blue Cross, according to Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman.
Kaufman declined to answer specific questions about the ruling, including: how many workers were involved, what were the projected cost savings to Dell by outsourcing the jobs to India, what kind of work was Dell currently performing for Blue Cross and what the cost of the labor ruling against the company would be to Dell.
