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...action was filed against Atlantic Richfield for allegedly misclassifying oil-field workers as temps in an effort to exclude them from company health- and retirement- benefit plans. ARCO denies the charge and says the plaintiffs do not work for them but for oil-field service firms. In May, as Microsoft was handing full-timers a pay raise, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled that as many as 10,000 former temps should have been allowed to take part in the employee stock-purchase plan. "Labels don't matter. It's what you're doing, not what...
...ramping up for specific projects. Silicon Valley, with the ebb and flow of its product cycles, relies heavily on permatemps; a new report shows the temp industry has been California's leading job creator for the past five years. No wonder the Information Technology Association of America says the Microsoft ruling would "serve to undermine the information economy...
Those are the people Marcus Courtney represents. A former Microsoft permatemp, Courtney is the founder of WashTech, a new union trying to organize high-tech workers. "The courts have said the charade is up," says Courtney. A band of 16 Microsoft permatemps has formed a collective-bargaining group allied with WashTech. The larger fight at Microsoft is far from over. The company is appealing the ruling; class-action claims over access to its 401(k) plan and health and other benefits are pending...
...Microsoft insists that many permatemps don't want their freedom jeopardized. Says spokesman Dan Leach: "In many cases, we find someone who turns down a permanent position because he's not interested in a pay cut." Kamal Larsuel, a software tester at Microsoft, would have no such reservations. Like many of the 6,000 other temporary "Microserfs," Larsuel has virtually no contact with her agency--yet she can't even attend work "morale" outings to the movies. She admits to being excited about the recent court decision. But she and others in her situation share an overriding concern: the ruling...
...from the Internet and its ability to reflect modern lifestyles. Until recently, most people splurged on one major vacation. Now many Americans and Europeans are taking several short and often impromptu breaks throughout the year. Travelocity, the world's largest online travel-booking site, advertises last-minute deals, while Microsoft's Expedia travel website offers comprehensive guides for spur-of-the-moment business travelers. One agency response is to concentrate on highly focused service-oriented travel. Another is to emphasize specialized tourism, such as golf tours and culinary holidays...