But a Xerox employee who would be affected by the action and who spoke to Computerworld on condition of anonymity, said the agreement is being done to cut costs.

Engineering "is the core of America and to cut that is almost criminal," the employee said, and "if you don't have an engineering base in this country, you don't produce anything."

The employee continued, "If you are giving Americans jobs, isn't that a good thing for Xerox?"

The affected Xerox employee said workers were called to a meeting last Wednesday and told about the possible HCL agreement. There were 200 to 250 employees at the meeting and they were told that "we would all become HCL employees," this employee said.

An agreement is expected sometime next month.