Microsoft thinks outside the box, plans on converting 77 contract workers to full-time, unionized employees

Microsoft is taking an unusual approach to hiring personnel as they plan on converting 77 contractual Quality Assurance workers to full-time, unionized employees. The initial report came from Bloomberg, which is known for its reliability with information. Before this decision, these workers had to be employed through a staffing agency called TCWGlobal.

Microsoft is currently in negotiation with the CWA (Communication Workers of America) to fully convert these employees to full-time roles. Some of these employees were facing issues with layoffs this Fall. It is reported, that out of 77, only 23 will be given a permanent role with increased pay. 

Others are provided temporary positions with increased hourly pay alongside paid leaves and holidays. These recent hires will even receive free game copies, which were earlier denied to them as contractual workers. This type of decision is unusual in the gaming industry, however, Activision took a similar step in 2022.

To understand why Microsoft took such a decision, we have to look back at April 2023. It is reported that Microsoft was in talks with ZeniMax Workers United, the representative of almost 300 Quality Assurance employees. During their exchange with them, Microsoft agreed to take on 77 union-represented workers as full-time employees.

According to Aubrey Litchfield, a member of the organizing committee at ZeniMax, the company believed that this is a great opportunity for people who are often unheard of. Finally, the decision came to fruit in the Summer of 2023, as ZeniMax confirmed most of their contract employees are willing to join Microsoft full-time.

What are the terms that Microsoft and the workers agreed upon in exchange for full-time employment?

The decision to take people from ZeniMax started back in April 2023, which included a group of 300 quality assurance employees. As summer came, Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America, finally came to a settlement. It was agreed by Microsoft that they will be taking 77 of these workers to present in the company with increased pay and benefits.

Details say that 23 employees have been provided with permanent positions with increased pay by 22%. The rest 54 employees have been provided with temporary positions with an increased $2.75 hourly rate and paid holidays. Since these employees worked on Starfield, every one of them was given a free copy of Starfield. Incidentally,these benefits were denied to them as contractual workers before their hiring.

Before all this Microsoft faced backlashes in 2016, where a sub-contracted bug tester filed a complaint against the company. Despite the efforts from the National Labor Relations Board, the alleged wrongdoings were denied by the corporation. In 2023, the corporation has taken a friendlier approach to the situation and allowed workers to have the choice of unionizing.