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„Made in Monde“ is the title of a book recently published by MIT professor Suzanne Berger. An interdisciplinary project team at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) over the past five years studied globalisation and the impact on production, services and employment.

One of the most striking findings was that contrary to the attention by media paid to the phenomenon of offshore outsourcing, employment in the “real” economy over the last five years was pretty stable. In 2004, only 13’000 job losses in the US could be credited directly to offshore outsourcing, she said.

S. Berger presented the main findings of her research project at a conference in Paris on 13 March, organised by UNI affiliate CFDT-Cadres and chaired by UNI Europa P&MS President Jean-Paul Bouchet. The Conference was attended by over 150 participants.

Following the presentation by Prof. Berger, colleagues of the CFDT gave an overview of work they had done with respect to offshore outsourcing. Following their active participation in the UNI Europa MOOS project (making offshore outsourcing sustainable), they have developed further guidance and tools for their representatives. There had been active cooperation with representatives of EDS, Cap Gemini and Equant.

UNI’s Gerhard Rohde introduced to the Conference a draft code of conduct, which had been developed particularly for managers involved in offshore outsourcing projects. The code sets out a number of principles, which offshore managers are expected to respect when planning, implementing and monitoring offshore operations.