[sudo-i]

They don't treat them as equal because of the legal system. I believe in the eyes of the law, if you treat a non-FTE as a FTE then they are essentially as FTE. That means companies have to treat CWs this way as a means to protect themselves against litigation. It's a little more complicated then just "the purpose of making money"

[sct202]

Microsoft got in trouble for this in the 90s for treating permatemps too similarly to FTEs. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/13/business/technology-temp-...

[sarcasmatwork]

The case you're talking about is Vizcaino v. Microsoft

https://corporate.findlaw.com/human-resources/vizcaino-v-mic...

They don't treat them as equal because of the legal system. So then why dont they hire CW's as FTE's after 1 year? Why do they abuse the term CW, and keep using CW's for longer than 1 year when the job does not change?

Why do these large companies have a majority of their workforce as CW's vs FTE? Costs.. FTE's are higher costs, so they shift the savings to a CW workforce that is basically a FTE, but lower costs in all aspects where then all liability is shifted to the recruiter.

CW's are a lower cost workforce for companies that need specific skills. The job is suppose to be by legal standards and IRS "a short period of time that should not extend 1 year...." yet it does. Companies continued use of a CW in a FTE capacity is a complete abuse of the CW system imho.

Most people dont know, but companies have at least 2 type of CW contracts. Because of the Vizcaino v. Microsoft case CW's were forced to take a "break" for legal reasons. So a CW would have a contract that would start at 6 months, then get extended to 12 months, and then within the last few years got companies could extend to a max of 18 months before a CW was forced to take a 6 month break. When 6 months came back around the CW could have their very job back, or go elsewhere in the company.

The other type of contract is a never ending. You're a CW that is hired thru a tech recruiter and you settle on wage and that is what you get until you leave. Perks are null in most cases. The wage can be higher, but companies set limits on the job so the CW get never get anymore as that is the rate set for the job.