Microsoft, Gates faces $5bn class action suit
Maybe several of us ought to retain lawyers too...file some sort of Stockholder Case against the attornies who thrive on these cases....
Microsoft, Gates faces $5bn class action suit
By Paul Abrahams in San Francisco and Peter Spiegel in Washington
Published: January 3 2001 00:48GMT | Last Updated: January 3 2001 01:31GMT
Seven current and former employees of Microsoft, the world's largest software company, intend the sue the group and its chairman Bill Gates, in a $5bn class action lawsuit for alleged discrimination.
The suit, scheduled to be filed on Wednesday, will argue that Microsoft discriminated against African-American employees through unfair evaluations, promotions, wrongful termination and retaliation.
Willie Gary, an African-American senior partner at the Florida-based firm of lawyers representing the plaintiffs, Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finney, Lewis, McManus, Watson and Sperando, said he would file the action in the US district court and will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning.
Mr. Gary charged that in 1999, only 2.6 per cent of Microsoft’s 21,400 employees were black, as were only 1.6 per cent of the company’s 5,200 managers.
Microsoft refused to comment on the case.
The company's stock had been unchanged during regular trading, but in after hours trading on Tuesday, it gained 0.7 per cent at $43.68.
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