Judge denies class status in Microsoft race suit

SEATTLE: A federal judge in Seattle on Friday denied class certification for
employees suing Microsoft Corp. over alleged racial and gender discrimination,
ruling the software giant's managerial system was sound.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft had rejected charges that it gave current
and former black and female employees subpar pay, promotions and evaluations.

In a 26-page order, US District Court Judge Marsha Pechman concluded:
"Microsoft's managerial system is not inherently flawed, and...the
statistical data belies (sic) the existence of any class-wide pattern of
discrimination."

Last May, another Seattle judge dismissed a racial discrimination suit filed
in 1999 by a black former employee who had claimed Microsoft passed him over for
promotion and denied him stock options because of his race.

Another group of current and former Microsoft employees last January sued for
$5 billion for alleged racial discrimination in a case originally slated to be
heard by US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington, D.C.

Jackson, who in 2000 ordered the company split in two for violating antitrust
law, later recused himself from the bias lawsuit. On June 28, an appeals court
overturned the lower court's order that Microsoft be broken into two companies,
but upheld findings that the company abused its monopoly in the market for
personal computer operating systems.

(C) Reuters Limited.