Paid Time Off MattersA (slow) progress report

100 years later: still no universal paid family leave in the US

Excellent and sad article by Mona Siegel in the New York Times: The forgotten origins of paid family leave. While the Microsofties have good paid family leave, the contractors employees (more than half the workforce) remain an unknown -essentially voiceless- quantity. When they speak up, they get fired (at least it has been our experience). When will Microsoft survey how its contractors employees are treated as far as paid time off is concerned? Who will dare remember Microsoft of its duties as a signatory of the UN Global Compact?

How Brad Smith "discovered'' the housing crisis in Bellevue/Seattle

On pages 186/190 of his book Tools and weapons, The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age, Brad explains that it is when attending a meeting of the group Challenge Seattle in June 2018 that he and Satya Nadella took the measure of the 'affordable housing crisis', agreeing somehow that was a negative externality of Microsoft and other high tech (and highly discriminatory) companies.While he was shocked by the long commute inflicted on the bellevue Chief of Police he did not seem to realize (does he today?)  how many of the temps, suppliers employees of Microsoft had a very long commute with a much lower income., including very probably the receptionists laid off and outsourced by Bob Herbold in ... 1997.(page 251 in No Logo by Naomi Klein)

 

Organizing a union within HCL/Google in Pittsburgh: Bravo

Excellent article in The Guardian, by Julia Carrie-Wong about workers organizing to get a union within a contractor's unit working for Google: so many similarities with our own story. In fact the vote is taking place today. All our best wishes of success, friends. We can only hope they don't play on you the run away shop strategy :(

That happened when we cornered Microsoft with an NLRB charge about them being a joint employer. Something that was too 'dangerous' for their business model, despite their claims of generosity and acceptance of unionizing, although it basically never took place (yet?) but for us. 

Visiting twitter just found out they won!

They are going to be represented by United Steel Workers.

Congratulations and again all our best wishes. Considering the size of HCL, (140K employees in 44 countries) it will be interesting to see if the unionization drive spreads, including in our region as, of course HCL partners with Microsoft.

Starting to read Beaten Down, Worked Up, by Steven Greenhouse

Beaten Down, Worked Up, the Past, Present and Future of American Labor is the just published book by Steven Greenhouse, former labor Journalist for the New York Times. Interestingly on pages 8, 9, he makes the same remarks as Melinda Gates about the lack of paid leave in the US, but the main difference is that he links this situation to the decline of the unionization, while (if I remember correctly) Melinda does not even mention the word union. She definitely sees the importance for women to 'organize' (mostly in far away countries) but not as workers unions (except in the case of sex workers in India?) but even then not as a right within a corporate environment. As for Steven, Microsoft is absent from his index... Different blindspots?

From Melinda's book:

Page 234 and following: Section titled "A workplace compatible with family life'

"We have to create a workplace that is compatible with family life. This requires support from the top, perhaps with a push from below."

"Perhaps with a push from below'? 

And how would this eventual "push from below" happen? who would take this initiative to get the attention of the omnipotent 'top'?

Reading 'The Moment of Lift', by Melinda Gates.

I just finished reading 'The Moment of Lift, How Empowering Women Changes the World', by Melinda Gates. I'll point out here the parts that I found especially interesting as they relate to paid leave. I know there are many other aspects of the book that are worth taking in and commenting about but I want to focus on what she writes about paid leaves, who are the people (mostly women organizing to obtain changes) and how it relates to my own experience as a temp with a Microsoft's contractor trying to obtain paid leave, as described in 'The Other Microsoft" and this blog.

Microsoft and 'affordable' housing in Puget Sound

On January 16, 2019, Microsoft announced it would "commit $500 million to tackle affordable housing crisis in Puget Sound region'. That's "good" but why did it take so long for Microsoft to act? Microsoft 'temps' were/are among the ones most affected by the difficulty/impossibility to find affordable housing that would be close to the Microsoft's campuses. I remember how hard it was for most/all of my coworkers to find housing they could afford, except very far away, involving extra long and costly commuting hours. I also remember Microsoft had buses for its employees housed far away but those buses were not accessible for contractor's employees :( 

Another sad example of double standard and discrimination. What is the situation now? Has anything changed? As for the $500 million and the affordable housing crisis: how will this be monitored, what about the other big tech companies, what about the Gates and Allen Foundations?

Any connection between paid time off and affordable housing? Of course because the farther you have to live the longer you spend on commuting, the less time you have for your family or anything else. I'd be curious to know what's the average commuting time for direct employees and temps?

 

One year later, how do Microsoft's contractors implement the new paid parental leave policy?

One year ago a new paid parental leave requirement was announced in the Microsoft's blog by Corporate VP  Dev Stahlkopf with the headline: Paid parental leave matters. Fast Company selected her among most creative people 2019 for her work at Microsoft. How have those changes been implemented? We remain concerned about the status of the 10 public holidays: for Microsoft direct employees they come on top of the paid vacation days.  As we wrote in 2018, organizing a survey of the contractors employees to collect their assessment of their situation and making public the results, would be useful. Why? Having Xmas day and all 10 public holidays taken out of your 15 days of paid time off seriously  reduces the real number of your paid vacation. That would be in violation of Microsoft commitment to its own Global Human Rights Statement of 2006. So can we get the details of the present situation?

The more things change... the more they stay the same

NYT May 28, 2019, by Daisuke Wakabayashi

Google shadow workforce: temps who outnumber full-time employees 

 

LA Times December 7, 1997 by Leslie Helm (later Editor of Seattle Business Magazine)

Microsoft testing limits on temp worker use  (abuse)

 

"And earlier this year, about 90 receptionists were fired and told that Microsoft's clerical needs would henceforth be handled by an outside provider, with which they could enlist. Along with their jobs, those employees lost their Microsoft benefits and stock options.

"We were overpaying them," said Bob Herbold, Microsoft's chief operating officer."

From C-Net January 2002 about Herbold's compensation, who was the highest paid employee (more than twice what Gates was paid) or Seattle Times, September 30, 2007 by Michele Matassa Flores.

Microsoft's chief operating officer Bob Herbold received $1.18 million in salary and bonuses last year, and another $3 million from selling stock.

Google Shadow Workforce : temps who outnumber full-time employees

Excellent article by Daisuke Wakabayashi in the New York Times about the exploitation of temporary workers by Google.

No vacation nation, revised

Announcing here the revised report from the CEPR, revising their reports of 2007 and 2013: 

Nearly 1-in-4 Americans Receive No Paid Vacation or Holidays

WASHINGTON - The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) first published a study comparing paid vacation time in the US to other rich countries in 2007 and again in 2013. In a newly revised report released today, No-Vacation Nation, Revised (PDF) reports that the United States continues to be the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation time or holidays.