For years Microsoft staffed parts of its workforce with long-term 'permatemps' — workers labeled temporary or freelance who often worked alongside regular employees for years without the same benefits, including the lucrative employee stock-purchase plan. In Vizcaino v. Microsoft, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Microsoft had exercised enough control over these workers that they were effectively employees entitled to those benefits. In 2000, Microsoft agreed to pay $97 million to settle the long-running class action covering thousands of workers. The case became a landmark in U.S. labor law on the misclassification of contingent workers and prompted Microsoft to change its staffing practices.