Ninth Circuit court to reconsider class action status for Microsoft gender discrimination lawsuit

Microsoft CEO Satya NadellaMicrosoft

• A gender discrimination lawsuit first filed against Microsoft in 2015 could get new life.
• The Ninth Circuit court of appeals on Thursday said it will reconsider allowing the complaint to proceed as a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 8,600 current and former Microsoft employees. 
• The lawsuit, filed on behalf of three women who used to work at Microsoft, alleges that the $876 billion tech company systemically discriminated against female engineers and IT employees.

A gender discrimination lawsuit against Microsoft first filed in 2015 could see new light following an appeals court’s decision to reconsider the case’s class action status on Thursday.

The lawsuit, Moussouris v. Microsoft Corporation, alleges that Microsoft’s “company-wide policies and practices systematically violate female technical employees’ rights and result in the unchecked gender bias that pervades its corporate culture.”

Three former Microsoft employees Katherine Moussouris, Holly Muenchow and Dana Piermarini are named as plaintiffs in the case, first filed in September 2015. In their case, the plaintiffs describe a corporate culture in which gender bias went unchecked, and in which the human resources department was of little recourse. 

The discovery process revealed that Microsoft’s internal complaint investigation team only substantiated one out of 120 gender discrimination complaints made by female technical employees between 2010 to 2016, according to a statement issued by the plaintiffs’ team. 

The plaintiffs were first denied class action status on June 25, by a district court in the state of Washington. Judge James Robart issued a 68-page denial, which ultimately argued that the plaintiffs failed to make their case that the women’s experiences affected an entire class of people. 

If the Ninth Circuit overturns the ruling and grants class certification, it would represent a significant victory for the plaintiffs and expose the software company to potentially hefty financial penalties should it lose at trial. The plaintiffs are seeking to certify a class of more than 8,600 women in various Microsoft offices across the US and seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

Microsoft has until January 31, 2019 to file its opposition. However, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said that this schedule could change due to the holidays.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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