Former manager sues Microsoft following action over “kissing incident”

A former Microsoft board member and manager fired for allegedly kissing a colleague at a company conference and then denying the incident, has sued the company after it had originally issued a complaint to reclaim holiday pay and a signing on bonus following the dismissal.

Bloomberg reports that Simon Negus, former Microsoft general manager at the company’s UK unit, was dismissed in September after an incident at Microsoft’s annual conference in July 2009. He is alleged to have been seen kissing a female colleague in front of other attendees but had denied the incident despite information implicating him.

Microsoft’s disciplinary panel found Negus had “behaved dishonestly, and thereby acted in a manner calculated or likely to destroy trust and confidence between him and Microsoft,” according to court documents.

Negus is seeking part of a signing on bonus from when he joined the company from Dell in 2008 and holiday pay, whilst Microsoft intends to recoup the same monies:

[The company] is seeking the return of 75,000 pounds ($122,600), part of a signing bonus paid to Negus when he joined from Dell Inc. in 2008 that required him to remain at Microsoft for three years. The company is also claiming 2,563 pounds of holiday pay.