Some Thomson jobs in Rochester headed overseas (India & the Philippines) [View All]

[OhioChick]

November 14, 2008

Thomson Reuters Corp. is shipping some of the legal publishing work done in Rochester and two other U.S. sites to operations in India and the Philippines.

The New York City-based news and information company notified employees in Rochester, Cleveland and suburban Minneapolis about the change Thursday.

Thomson Reuters employs almost 750 people in downtown Rochester, most of them in the Aqueduct complex next to the Broad Street bridge and some in the Bausch & Lomb tower. Although the company declined to be specific about how many jobs will be affected, it affirmed its intention to maintain its Rochester operation.

Spokesman John T. Shaughnessy said the company over the next three years will relocate some work done in the three cities, such as quality assurance, loading data into databases and keying in hard copy content into digital form.

Other editorial work, such as legal analysis, product design and author relations, will continue to be done in the United States, Shaughnessy said.

In the first year of the realignment, the company plans to add 300 to 500 positions in India and the Philippines. At the same time, the company intends to cut jobs at the three U.S. sites.

Shaughnessy declined to say how many layoffs the company anticipated in 2009 but said it hopes to keep dismissals to a minimum through reassignments, attrition and a voluntary job separation program. The company hopes to have 70 workers across the three sites take voluntary buyouts in 2009.

Thomson Reuters has no plans to close the Rochester, Cleveland and Eagan, Minn., offices, Shaughnessy said. And the company is not giving any guidance for job changes it expects in years two and three of the realignment.

The Cleveland site employs about 200, Shaughnessy said, while the Minnesota office, by far the largest, employs 6,800.

Thomson Reuters was formed in April when Thomson Corp. purchased Reuters Group. Quarterly earnings results announced this week indicated that Thomson Reuters' legal division saw its revenue and operating profit rise significantly.

"The business is committed to doing this (jobs move) to ensure we remain a growing business in the future," Shaughnessy said.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20081114/BUSINESS/811140335

Courtesy of "blue97keet"