The Temps Strike Back.
Companies face more lawsuits claiming they misclassified workers.
As companies use more nonpermanent workers than ever before, they are facing a growing number of lawsuits claiming these temps and contractors are really employees who deserve millions of dollars worth of retroactive benefits. Microsoft Corp. Two weeks ago, a San Francisco federal appeals court told the software giant that it may have to give retroactive benefits not just to a few hundred former independent contractors but to thousands of temporary employees from staffing agencies. However, Microsoft is far from alone in its temp troubles. The portion of the U.S. workforce employed by temporary agencies rose from 0.5 percent in 1982 to 2.2 percent in 1997, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many are traditional kinds of temp workers such as secretaries.