Majority of the Americans are deeply divided over offshoring by US companies, according to a latest national survey.

Nearly 60 per cent believe that companies outsourcing work that could be done by Americans to offshore contractors should be penalised by the US government, Employment Law Alliance survey reveals.

Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage

ELA, an independent network of labour and employment attorneys, selected the controversial outsourcing practice known as offshoring as the subject of its latest "America At Work" poll because, according to ELA CEO Stephen J Hirschfeld, "It may be the most volatile issue in the American workplace today with profound economic, social and geo-political consequences."

The ELA survey conducted by Pennsylvania-based market research firm of Reed, Haldy, McIntosh & Associates, also found that: Thirty-nine per cent of American workers believe that American companies should be free to outsource work overseas, while 52 per cent said they would turn to government agencies or elected officials for help if their job was threatened by offshoring.

About 37 per cent said they would seek help from a labour union if they thought they might lose their job due to offshoring and 21 per cent said they would seek recourse through the courts if their job security was threatened by the possibility of an employer sending their work overseas.

The ELA poll, conducted between of May 21 and May 23, 2004, also touched the personal workplace experiences with offshoring, and their views towards media coverage of the controversy.

Six per cent of those surveyed said they have lost a job because their work was sent overseas and 30 per cent know of someone, including a family member, friend or co-worker who had lost a job due to offshoring.

Eight per cent said they personally feel their job security is at risk because their employer might send their work overseas while 46 per cent said offshoring is not as much as a crisis as the media has made it out to be.

Wayne Cascio, a professor of business at the University of Colorado and author of "Responsible Restructuring," said the survey results are at once somewhat reassuring (the 39 per cent who favour in principle offshoring) and disturbing (the 58 per cent who support government sanctions for offshoring).