Yes, thanks.  I was aware of that joyous news.  I am going to see if I can 
get a copy of the petition to review all the allegations in detail.  Thanks.  
Michelle



   
	Enron North America Corp.
	
	From:  Felecia Acevedo @ ENRON                           10/27/2000 08:46 AM
	

To: Michelle Cash/HOU/ECT@ECT, Brian Schaffer/Corp/Enron@ENRON
cc:  
Subject: Microsoft Lawsuit

You've probably seen this already, but just in case..... also, their 
performance review process sounds a lot like ours!


No. 200
Monday, October 16, 2000 Page A-3
ISSN 1522-5968

News 
 
Discrimination Suit 
Filed by Microsoft Salaried Employee
Alleges Discrimination Based on Race, Sex 



SEATTLE--A suit has been filed against Microsoft Corp. alleging the company 
maintains a systemic and pervasive practice of discriminating against African 
American and female salaried employees, affecting pay rates and promotion 
opportunities (Donaldson v. Microsoft Corp., W.D. Wash., No. C00-1684P, 
10/4/00). 
Such discrimination at the company "is the standard operating procedure," the 
lawsuit said. 

The suit filed Oct. 4 in federal court in Seattle seeks back pay, other job 
benefits, and compensatory and punitive damages for a proposed class of about 
400 African American employees and some 4,500 female employees. 

Mark Murray, company spokesman, said Microsoft does not tolerate 
discrimination of any kind. 

"We take these kinds of issues very seriously," Murray said regarding the 
lawsuit. The company has an "active diversity policy" and seeks to recruit 
and promote minorities and women, Murray told BNA Oct. 12. He said he could 
not comment on any specific aspects of the lawsuit. 

The class would include all current and former female salaried employees who 
worked for Microsoft beginning Feb. 23, 1999, and all current and former 
African American salaried employees who worked at the company beginning Oct. 
4, 1998. Microsoft employs some 18,000 workers in the U.S. the complaint 
said. About 2.5 percent to 3 percent are African American and about 26 
percent are women. 

Murray said the company has about 27,250 employees in the U.S., including 
21,767 in Western Washington. In the U.S., 26.3 percent of Microsoft 
employees are women and 22.2 percent minorities, he said. 

The lawsuit was filed by Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll of Seattle. The 
named plaintiff, Monique Donaldson, sued on behalf of herself and a class of 
all similarly situated African American and similarly situated female 
salaried employees at Microsoft. 

"African American and female salaried employees of Microsoft are routinely 
subjected to a pattern and practice of race and sex discrimination affecting 
the terms and conditions of their employment" at the company, the complaint 
said. The violations--of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil 
Rights Act of 1991, and Civil Rights Act of 1871--are "systemic in nature, 
and constitute a pattern and practice of conduct which permeates Microsoft's 
operations," the lawsuit maintains. 


'Excessive Subjectivity' Alleged

The complaint said the company allows "excessive subjectivity" in decisions 
involving promotions and compensation. Microsoft has retaliated against 
employees in the class who complained "either internally or externally about 
Microsoft's treatment of African American and female employees by giving 
unjustified lowered performance evaluations and constructively terminating 
them."
 
The lawsuit said the company "uses an excessively subjective evaluation 
system" that allows managers "who are predominantly white males, to rate 
employees based upon their own biases rather than based upon merit." 
Performance evaluations, for instance, use a five-point scale, but scores of 
five, the highest number, are not awarded. Within any organization of the 
company, only a certain number of employees are allowed to receive each 
score, which can range from 2.5 to 4.5, the lawsuit said. 

"Thus, no matter how good or bad the actual performance of employees a 
certain number of them must still receive the lower scores." Any employee 
with a 2.5 score is placed on a "personal improvement plan" or asked to 
resign, the complaint said. 

"Stack rankings" are used to rank employees in the same job category and 
organizational unit from best to worst, the complaint said. Employees can be 
ranked higher under the stack ranking than others who receive numerically 
higher performance evaluations, the lawsuit said. 

"Obtaining higher stack rankings is often governed by an employees' personal 
popularity with other managers" because the rankings mix employees working 
for different managers. 

In addition to allowing discrimination in performance appraisals, the company 
also has a pattern of paying African American and female employees salaries 
"substantially lower" than those paid white males doing similar work, with 
the same or lesser skills, and with similar or lesser experience, the lawsuit 
said. 

Furthermore, "excessively subjective decisionmaking criteria" are applied in 
promotions, which favor white males with fewer qualifications than African 
Americans and female employees. 



By Nan Netherton



Copyright , 2000 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.