6 Years Sexually Abused, Women Employees at Microsoft file a lawsuit
Microsoft's technical officer at Microsoft, based in the United States, reportedly filed 238 lawsuits on gender discrimination and sexual harassment at work during 2010 to 2016.
Citing a Reuters report on Friday (16/3/2018), the lawsuit was revealed to the court and the public because Microsoft refused to give a raise or promotion to female employees at the world's largest software company. Microsoft also denied there are companies that have this form.
The lawsuit was filed in Seattle federal court in 2015 and attracted public attention after men were fired from their work in media and political entertainment due to sexual harassment.
The plaintiff's lawyers pushed this as a class action lawsuit involving at least 8,000 workers. Further details about Microsoft's violations were published in legal filings as part of legal process.
Of the 188 lawsuits on gender discrimination filed by female employees at Microsoft, only one is recognized by Microsoft.
The lawyers of the women said the number of complaints filed was astonishing. Moreover, the claims did not get the response as expected.
The company allegedly kept information about the gender discrimination lawsuit among the internal, so it is unclear how many complaints filed by female employees to internal Microsoft.
In court, Microsoft called the plaintiffs not identifying practices that affect employees to ensure the occurrence of class action.
Because, according to the company, Microsoft poured US $ 55 million per year to promote diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.
Microsoft denies
Just known, based on data last year, the number of Microsoft employees reached 74 thousand people in America.
Microsoft also said the plaintiff did not provide an example of a problem that Microsoft's investigators consider to be corporate rules. Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesman has not provided clarification and comments related to this.
Currently, district judge James Robart has not issued a permit related to the class action lawsuit filing status.
The Claim Should Be Withheld
In Reuters's review of a lawsuit in federal court between 2006 and 2016 revealed, hundreds of them were sued for allegations of sexual harassment, in which the company solved it with civil litigation to store information potentially burdensome to the company.
Microsoft also argues, the number of lawsuits female employees should still be kept because if publish it, would prevent employees to report violations in the future.
Meanwhile, an unnamed court-appointed official found that this scenario was a form of justification to keep the information closed.
