The new year has brought a new legal headache for Microsoft Corp. in the form of a $5 billion racial discrimination lawsuit against the company.
A Florida law firm plans to file suit today in the same federal court in Washington, D.C., that last year ordered the breakup of Microsoft in a landmark antitrust case.
The discrimination suit is based on a case filed last summer by Rahn Jackson, a former Microsoft employee who claims the company repeatedly denied him promotions because of his race. But now six other black current and former Microsoft employees have joined the case, and are seeking to sue on behalf of all black Microsoft employees. Microsoft has about 27,000 employees; of these, about 700 are black.
The suit alleges that black Microsoft employees face discrimination in promotions and compensation, unjust termination, and reprisals against those who object to the company's practices. It's one of a spate of race- and sex-discrimination lawsuits recently filed against Microsoft.
Late last year, Peter Browne, once Microsoft's highest-ranking black executive, sued the company, alleging that he was repeatedly denied promotions because of his race. Another former employee, technical writer Monique Donaldson, also filed suit, saying that she was not only denied promotions, but did not receive a fair share of the stock options that make up a major part of the compensation package for Microsoft employees.
''She feels she was the victim of a pattern of systemic discrimination which seeks to impose ceilings on female employees and minorities,'' said Mike Hausfeld, one of Donaldson's attorneys.
Microsoft spokesman Dean Katz said that his company does not tolerate employment discrimination. He admitted that the company's record of hiring black employees needs improvement but said the main problem is a shortage of technically trained black workers.
''Diversity is a challenge across the entire high-tech industry,'' said Katz. ''There's more that Microsoft and other companies can and should be doing to help stimulate interest in women and minority communities in scientific and technical fields.''
He said that Microsoft has spent $100 million ''in the last several years'' to boost technical training for women and members of minority groups. Katz also said that while there are relatively few black employees at Microsoft, the number of blacks at the company grew by 83 percent over the past three years, faster than total employee growth.
This story ran on page C02 of the Boston Globe on 1/3/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.