Working Late Does Pay!

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Siebel’s in the news again – this time, for not so good reasons. The CRM industry leader has apparently agreed to settle a class action lawsuit filed by its IT employees who accused the organization of forcing them to work long hours between 2000 and 2005. Nearly 800 software engineers, some of whom are no with the company, are set to benefit by as much as $27,000 each through a $27.5 million payout from Siebel, if the agreement is approved at a hearing scheduled for April 2007.

Oracle, which took over the company in January this year, contributed in a way to the situation – acquisition talks and plans were playing spoilsport with employees’ ability to work for long hours, says Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone. A few months ago, Oracle was asked to settle PeopleSoft’s dues to the Justice Department, to the tune of $98.5 million, for overcharging government agencies over the course of several years.