As per an article published on CNBC, a court filing revealed that women at Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) employed in U.S.-based technical jobs submitted as many as 238 internal complaints about sexual harassment or gender discrimination between 2010 and 2016. This figure was mentioned by plaintiffs suing company for systematically denying promotions or pay raises to women at the world’s leading software company. Microsoft disagrees it had any such policy.
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Microsoft is fighting the litigation, arguing the allegations are grounded on individual circumstances and not suggestive of any systemic concerns. Inclusion and diversity are critically important to company and it encourages employees to talk about their complaints. The company takes all employee issues seriously and have a robust and fair system in place to look after employee issues and take appropriate action when required.
The lawsuit is attracting extensive attention after a series of influential men have been fired or they left from their jobs in the media, politics and entertainment for sexual misconduct.
Microsoft’s investigators concluded that less than 1% of gender-discrimination grievances made internally were founded, as per data opened in an ongoing class-action case. The Bloomberg article mentions that the disclosure covers around 120 grievances made from 2010 to 2016 by U.S. women employees engaged in technical roles and exhibits the firm only sided with one accuser. Staffs also lodged 108 grievances of sexual harassment, three issues of pregnancy discrimination and eight complaints of retaliation.
Companies generally keep data about internal discrimination complaints undisclosed, so it is not clear how the count of complaints at Microsoft compares to peers. Microsoft reported that the plaintiffs did not note practices that impact enough personnel to warrant a class action. The company spends over $55 million annually to promote inclusion and diversity. It had nearly 74,000 U.S. employees at the close of last year.
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