Laid-off workers can keep extra pay: Microsoft

Seattle, Feb 24: The IT giant Microsoft which made an accounting error when it laid off some employees last month had asked its sacked members to pay the money back.

Soon after Microsoft's letter seeking repayment surfaced on the Web, the company reverted back its statement. In a flip-flop, Microsoft said the laid-off workers could keep the extra payouts.

In January, letters to the sacked employees were mailed requesting them to repay the extra pay. Most of the checks were off by about $4,000 to $5,000, she said.

Lisa Brummel, Microsoft's senior vice president for human resources said she learned of the letters over the weekend after one appeared on the technology blog TechCrunch.

I decided it didn't quite feel right,' she said in an interview. Around 25 laid-off employees were called by executives personally on Monday, Feb 23 to tell them Microsoft would not seek repayment after all.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft also gave about 20 employees too little severance. When the company noticed its mistake, it sent checks and explanations to those people, she said.

OneIndia News