Microsoft Corp. is converting a group of subcontracted temps into unionized employees, bucking an industry trend and expanding organized labor’s new foothold at the software giant.
In January, Microsoft agreed for the first time to collectively bargain with a labor union: ZeniMax Workers United, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America that represented some 300 quality assurance workers at a Microsoft-owned video game studio. Union contract negotiations have been underway since April, according to CWA.
As part of those talks, Microsoft recently agreed that a group of 77 contract staff doing similar work would become employees represented by the union. Previously these people had technically been employed by the staffing agency TCWGlobal.
Some of the contract staffers’ roles were being terminated this fall, CWA said. Instead, 23 of them will get permanent full-time Microsoft jobs, with a 22% pay increase. The rest will get temporary positions as Microsoft employees, $2.75-an-hour raises and paid sick days and holidays. They will also receive copies of the Starfield video game they worked on, a perk previously denied to contract workers.
The union said it will continue trying to secure additional permanent jobs for Microsoft’s contract workforce.
