Cost of globalisation - How can we beat €2,400 a year workers?

SOMETIMES events and how they transpire point to chastening realities. The announcement that nearly 600 jobs are to be lost in Waterford when the TalkTalk call centre closes in less than a month is one.

That specific announcement came as a complete surprise but globalisation has cost thousands of Irish workers their jobs already and it is foolish to pretend the process will not see more jobs moved from Ireland — and the rest of the EU — to lower-cost economies. This week’s announcement comes just days after Bank of America’s decision to close its credit card business in Carrick-on-Shannon cost 750 people their jobs.

That some Waterford workers learnt of their fate on Facebook just adds to the sense of disappointment and powerlessness in a region that has suffered more than 2,000 redundancies in less than two years. The idea that 575 people who, by all accounts, are an exemplary workforce can be so easily cast aside because their employers can make more money elsewhere is one of the great challenges to first world economies and social stability. It asks fundamental questions about the rights and responsibilities of property and capital.

No one has found an entirely satisfactory answer to this dilemma and, as we have seen too plainly here, it is far easier to talk about replacing manufacturing or service jobs with a knowledge-based economy than it is to realise that ambition.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his Government were angry that they were not given some indication such a very important decision was imminent. That anger is probably exacerbated by the realisation that there may have been little enough they could have done to convince TalkTalk to stay here.

How could they have convinced the company to continue paying their Waterford workers up to €30,000 a year when they can employ people in the Philippines or India to do the same work for less than €2,400 a year? That gap seems insurmountable and far beyond anything the IDA might paper over with any package of enticements.

They may however have been able to work with those facing unemployment by providing training that might hopefully lead to other work. It does seem strange though that we still wait until a foreign company turns off the lights before we start talking about retraining workers.

Maybe it would be a better acceptance of the times we live in if all workers, no matter how secure their jobs might seem, were given opportunities to regularly upgrade their skills and make themselves more attractive to employers and investors, domestic or international.

As the people of Waterford and Carrick-on-Shannon have found out globalisation is an unforgiving tide with the potential to cost tens of thousands more Irish jobs. We all know this and should better prepare for that unwelcome eventuality. Not to would be very foolish.

Can there be a stronger argument for re-imagining our education system and our attitudes towards lifelong learning?