Ron Lieber in a famous article published in August 2000 in Fast Company magazine under the title Permatemps Contretemps, explains how Microsoft had in 1998 required that its suppliers provide some benefits to their employees, including 13 days of paid time off. This 1998 requirement is also mentioned in 2008 Steven Greenhouse's book, The Big Squeeze.
"In other areas, Decker has had more leeway to improve the standing of temporary workers at the company. In 1998, for example, she instituted a platform of changes that requires every temp agency that works with Microsoft to pay for at least half of a temporary worker's medical and dental insurance, to give workers at least 13 paid days off each year, to grant them at least $500 worth of training annually, and to establish a retirement-savings plan with at least some matching contribution from the agency. And, for the first time, all temps in every job category have a choice between at least two agencies that they can sign up with. "If you're going to use a contingent workforce, then you need to make sure that there's a safety net in place for those workers, and you need to underwrite the costs associated with that net," Decker says, noting that Microsoft now pays 20% more per worker to agencies than it did just a year ago."
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