debunn

Thanks! If anything, the notice was excessive (six months) - so it's been challenging to search for a new position as we won't be able to start until February 1st (without abandoning our severance packages at least.) Most of us have either lined up something afterwards, or are beginning to search now (I'm still selectively searching for now) - hopefully we all move on to something better!

The only Toronto office I can see listed for TCS is downtown @ 400 University Avenue (which hilariously enough is the building I worked in previously) - I'm sure they'll gladly work anywhere in the city though! As of now, the project managers and team leads are on site, with the majority of their technical staff being back in India.

Reposted (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12854996) from last month's thread, as it's still relevant:

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is currently laying off over 100+ (union, management and contractor) IT folks from the Enterprise Technology Solutions (IT operations) and Testing teams. All of the affected positions are being transferred to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS - India based offshoring service company), with those who are affected being mandated to knowledge transfer with TCS up to the January 31, 2017 termination date.

While there have been internal assurances that no other teams are going to be outsourced in the near future, I wouldn't recommend applying for any IT based roles at OTPP.

Full disclosure - I currently work for, and am affected by this outsourcing.

http://www.benefitscanada.com/news/ontario-teachers-to-outso...

It looks like you're right - you can have a Professional Employer Organization act on behalf of the employer in regards to payroll, HR and other compliance matters:

http://www.salesforcesearch.com/bid/147571/How-Does-a-U-S-Co...

Just don't try and pay employees without doing the proper paperwork with the Canadian government (or use a PEO to do it for you):

http://www.pwc.com/ca/en/services/tax/tax-tracks/episode-59-...

If an employer only has one or two Canadian employees though, they may want to go via the self-employed route I mentioned in an earlier reply.

Having researched this scenario myself (as a Canadian looking to possibly work remotely for a US company), I've found the following article helpful (although the tone may be a little too lighthearted IMO):

https://medium.com/inside-formstack/working-remotely-for-an-...

Unless the US company wants to set up a Canadian corporation / subsiduary, and issue you a T4 and withhold (and pay half of) your EI and CPP (or pay some an external company to do it for them), odds are you'll be working as a self-employed consultant / contractor and sending them invoices for your services. The one US company I've interviewed with so far said this is the way they handle paying foreign workers.

A word of caution, you'll want to make sure - for both your sake and your employer's - that the CRA doesn't view you as an employee if you're claiming to be a self-employed contractor (penalties would apply.) I'd recommend reading more about it here (with links to CRA's site in the article), and discussing this with your accountant before signing an offer:

http://www.taxtips.ca/personaltax/employees/employeevscontra...

I'd also suggest your offer be explicit in matters of control over work, ownership of tools, and other items that could make the CRA feel you're an employee versus a contractor.

As well as the aforementioned CTRL-D shortcut, you can change the amount of time the splash screen is displayed... although it does require opening up the Chromebook (to set a jumper) and then writing a modified BIOS to the Chromebook:

https://johnlewis.ie/neutering-the-developer-mode-screen-on-...

Not for the faint of heart, but at least you only need to do it once...

Biotech ETFs are way up today (almost 10%) - it looks like with the fear of Hillary capping medical costs now gone, a lot of folks are seeing more long term value:

http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IBB?ltr=1 http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/XBI?ltr=1

Yes - the Ontario Teachers Federation (the parent body that manages the different Ontario teachers' unions) was made aware of the outsourcing shortly after it was announced in July. They questioned Ron Mock (OTPP's CEO) shortly afterwards, and voted to have OTPP reverse the decision:

https://twitter.com/oectagovernor/status/768170531468095492

Sadly, this has resulted in no visible changes to the decision.

The OTPP fund is currently at $171.4 billion (all figures in Canadian dollars) as of December 2015, with $13.2 billion in surplus funding as of January 1, 2015. Makes you wonder why they'd go through this kind of cost cutting, doesn't it?

While I'd agree that is a good idea, I'm already treading carefully about what I'm saying here as my employer is very explicit about employees not speaking to media outlets (everything I've relayed here is public knowledge.) I'll mention it to our local union president (Jeff Billard), and see what his thought are.

Sure - I've submitted a request to join the group, and will add a post once I've been approved.

Yes - we've discussed amongst ourselves (those affected) about what RBC did, and how they were lambasted in the media for abusing the visas. In our particular case, TCS seems to already have a number of local assets they're involving, with most of the work to be sourced by India based teams. I'm sure OTPP is trying to avoid similar negative press in regards to abusing visas, but I've been surprised how little coverage this news is getting in general (a pension plan funded by local Ontario union based teachers firing local union based employees for offshore assets.)

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is currently laying off over 100+ (union, management and contractor) IT folks from the Enterprise Technology Solutions (IT operations) and Testing teams. All of the affected positions are being transferred to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS - India based offshoring service company), with those who are affected being mandated to knowledge transfer with TCS up to the January 31, 2017 termination date.

While there have been internal assurances that no other teams are going to be outsourced in the near future, I wouldn't recommend applying for any IT based roles at OTPP.

Full disclosure - I currently work for, and am affected by this outsourcing.

(edit - adding article for those interested in details) http://www.benefitscanada.com/news/ontario-teachers-to-outso...

A biologist, a statistician and a computer scientist are all riding a train together through Africa, when they notice a herd of zebra from their window.

The biologist notices that one of the zebra are entirely white, and exclaims, "Wow! Look at that – it’s a completely white zebra! This is an incredible scientific discovery!"

The statistician then responds, "Well, it’s only one zebra out of millions – it’s statistically insignificant."

The computer scientist then sadly laments, "Oh no! A special case!"