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Contract Workers Sue Microsoft

Thursday November 19 1998 3:44 PM ET Contract Workers Sue Microsoft By Deeann Glamser SEATTLE (Reuters) - A legal battle over whether Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) legally can fill its offices with contract workers who are not eligible for company medical benefits or Microsoft contributions to employee savings plans heated up this week with another complaint filed in U.S. District Court here. Ten current and former contract workers at Microsoft are seeking class-action status to sue Microsoft for ''misclassifying'' thousands of on-site workers as ``temporary agency employees'' and ``independent contractors,'' despite doing what they say is the same work as Microsoft employees. The contingent workers, who call themselves ``perma-temps'', may work full-time for years but do not receive Microsoft benefits, from stock options to paid maternity leave. The plaintiffs worked at Microsoft for up to five years, at jobs including copy editor, program supervisor, graphic artist and software developer. The four women and six men said they were required to sign waivers that they actually worked for private employment agencies, even though they had little contact with the agencies other than receiving paychecks. ``It's particularly galling that some (workers) are paid extremely well and become millionaires and others are not provided medical insurance,'' said plaintiffs attorney David Stobaugh of Seattle. Any benefits the contract workers receive are provided by the agencies. ``We haven't seen a copy of the lawsuit and therefore can't comment,'' said Microsoft spokeswoman Heidi Rothauser. ''However, we believe we treat all our regular employees and contingent workers in a fair and equitable manner.'' The new lawsuit is a broader version of a class-action lawsuit filed by Microsoft contract workers Dec. 29, 1992. The workers in the new complaint had lost all, or a portion, of their damage claims in July of this year when the earlier lawsuit's class size was sharply restricted by a U.S. District Court judge. In that prior suit, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1997 that Microsoft had wrongly excluded some workers from its corporate Savings Plus Plan. The U.S. District Court in Seattle has asked Microsoft to figure how much plaintiffs are owed under the plan.

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Contract Workers Sue Microsoft

The new complaint alleges that Microsoft breached its duty to treat all employees fairly, violated state anti-kickback statutes by requiring plaintiffs to sign waivers that they worked for third-party employment agencies; and illegally denied family and medical leave to ``contract'' employees. Stobaugh said about 6,000 workers -- about a third of all on-site employees at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters -are classified as third-party agency employees. Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan declined comment on the number of such workers, but said they are used ``to fill in for full-time workers on leave, to help out on special projects or in special situations.... We're always evaluating our staffing needs.''

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