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?

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.

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?

Paid Parental leave matters: Microsoft's contractors employees to get 12 weeks of paid parental leave

The new paid parental leave requirement was announced in the Microsoft's blog by Corporate VP  Dev Stahlkopf with the headline: Paid parental leave matters. Read the interesting comments by Nat Levy in Geekwire, the Seattle Times (Rachel Lerman). Probably more to come (here Olivia Solon in The Guardian). Congratulations to Microsoft's management for moving in the right direction. Now the questions should be asked to other big high tech companies (Google, FB, Amazon, etc): what are your paid parental leave requirements for your contractors? Still unresolved for Microsoft's contractors employees, and it does count: the status of the public holidays (about 10 per year). The public holidays should be additional paid time off coming on top of the 'at least 15 days' presently required, not included within the 15 days of PTO. Organizing a survey of the contractors employees to collect their assessment of their situation would be useful.

The Guardian investigates the dire state of motherhood in the US

The Mother Load: America is failing mothers (and fathers and children). Maybe they'll expose the discrimination between workers at Microsoft and other high tech firms?

The paid time off divide between Microsofties and v- suppliers employees keeps growing

While working toward a third updated version of The Other Microsoft, I just found this article (among many) I had missed 4 months ago about how on June 27, 2017 Microsoft expanded the paid time off for its employees when someone is sick in their families. It's a constant pattern: Microsoft is glorified for giving more to its own employees, an attitude that would be fine if it did not completely ignore the fate of all the other people working for Microsoft via contractors who are left to fight for themselves without benefiting in any way from the fact they are de facto working full time for Microsoft. Kathleen Hogan could not claim she does not know those contractors employees exist and also would like more such benefits: she is the one we reached out to when we claimed Microsoft was a joint employer. At this point we can only see Microsoft's limits to empathy: Microsoft's empathy only goes to their own direct employees. The rest is of no concern to them. Here is Kathleen Hogan's June 27 statement on Linkedin: Families matter, that's why we are announcing Family Caregiver Leave: Family caregiver leave will allows an employee to take up to four weeks of fully paid leave to care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition.

Satya Nadella's focus on empathy: will it lead to extending paid family leave and paid public holidays for suppliers employees?

In the foreword (page 13) of the second edition of his book The Other Microsoft, Philippe Boucher quoted Satya Nadella's focus on empathy. We have not had the opportunity -yet- to read   Hit refresh: The quest to rediscover Microsoft's soul and imagine a better future for everyone" but from the reviews we read he reasserts  for him the importance of empathy. We hope this empathy will contribute to expand Microsoft's initiative to have their suppliers provide 'at least 15 days of paid time off" to add paid family leave and paid public holidays that are not specifically offered now.

 You can also read this interesting interview by Jane francisco about the Nadella's family in Good Housekeeping (November 2017). A few other articles about empathy: NPR,  Business Insider,  Fortune, etc.

Microsoft and Human Rights: what about starting to promote human rights at home for Microsoft's suppliers employees in the US?

Technology for human rights: UN Human Rights Office announces landmark partnership with Microsoft is the title of the press release distributed today by Microsoft and the UN office (see below). It is widely reproduced in the media that glorify Microsoft's generosity with their yearly $1 million grant to the UN Human Rights office for the next five years. See this post on Geekwire for the joined video presentation. The UN is presently running a campaign Stand up for someone's rights today that starts with this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."
Eleanor Roosevelt
Driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

I completely agree with Eleanor and my first reaction, beyond an automatic thank you note was to think about Microsoft's responsibilities 'in small places close to home' like toward the thousands of people they employ via vendors in the US, especially in Redmond and Bellevue. I was one of them for several years when we had zero paid time leave despite the fact paid leave is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (articles 24 and 25.2) and the other conventions Microsoft claims it intends to implement like the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights of 1966/1976. Articles 7d and 10.2 state: 

(the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to)

(7.d ) Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as remuneration for public holidays

10.2. Special protection should be accorded to mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth. During such period working mothers should be accorded paid leave or leave with adequate social security benefits.

Are those rights asserted 50 years ago implemented today by Microsoft for it's suppliers employees in the US? Two years ago, on March 26, 2015, Brad smith announced a requirement that should provide 'at least 15 days of paid time off' for those employees. That was certainly a step into the right direction but it fell short of what the UN covenants demand: there is no mention of paid public holidays nor any mention of paid parental leave, specific paid leaves that should be provided on top of the basic 'at least 15 days of paid time off'. As Microsoft reasserts publicly its commitment to human rights and how big data technology can help, I want to use this opportunity to challenge Microsoft to follow Eleanor Roosevelt's recommendation: survey all your supplier's employees to check the type of paid leaves they provide, especially paid holidays and paid parental leave. Also ask the employees how they feel and what their wishes would be. Last but not least, estimate how much fully providing for those paid leaves would cost and how it could be quickly implemented. Who am I to dare making such a request? A former so called 'temporary worker' ready, as the UN invites us, to stand up for someone's rights today. By the way, providing all the 'temps' with 10 paid public holidays would represent a yearly investment of at least $50 million. A bit more than the $1 million Microsoft is going to give to the UN Office for Human Rights. That would be a real commitment, right here, in the US but that would still do nothing specific for all the families with a new child.

Chuck Collins about "Rule changes that raise the floor". Where does Microsoft stand?

In his book 99 to 1 Chuck Collins writes (page 98): "Policies that raise the floor reduce poverty and establish a fundamental minimum standard of decency that no one will fall below...One third of people in the United States have no paid sick days and one half have no paid vacation days. Everyone deserve the right to take (paid) time off when sick and have a few weeks of (paid) vacation each year. In the rest of the developed world, these are considered basic human rights."

As we have seen those paid leaves are incorporated in various UN human rights documents that Microsoft claimed it is committed to implement.

 

Unpaid public holidays and no paid parental leave: Microsoft and Lionbridge are Scrooge like companies

In December 2012, Henry Blodget wrote a post in Business Insider about the Scrooge Award he gave to Corporate America. Three years later, as Xmas is coming, Microsoft and Lionbridge jointly deserve a Scrooge Award for not providing paid public holidays to all their employees. As we are not paid during those public holidays we suffer a loss of income that takes a big part of the fun out of this period as we worry about how we are going to compensate for this $ loss. Could it be possible that Microsoft does not know its trusted Lionbridge supplier does not pay for public holidays? It is doubtful as Microsoft directly profits by not paying either for those public holidays. Yes, some suppliers are more human and do pay those days to their workers (like WIPRO does). As we noted in the previous post, Microsoft should require all its suppliers to provide paid public holidays as this is clearly mentioned in article 7 (d) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: "Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as remuneration for public holidays ", and Microsoft claims it is committed to implement this Convention. We'll keep denouncing this Scrooge-like behavior until it changes. Of course in these times of celebrating a nativity we'll add to our outrage the lack of any paid parental leave. The Universal Declaration of HumanRights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also contain dispositions for pregnant moms. Article 25.2 of the UDHR states: "Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance". Article 10.2 of the Internal Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states: "Special protection should be accorded to mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth. During such period working mothers should be accorded paid leave or leave with adequate social security benefits." 50 years later, as this Convention was adopted in 1966, these benefits are still not required by Microsoft for all its suppliers. Although this Convention was never ratified by the US Senate, Microsoft voluntarily committed itself to implement all its content (as far as it was relevant to its responsibilities as a multinational corporation) when they joined the UN Global Compact in ... 2006.  9 years later Microsoft is still not respecting its commitment to implement dispositions adopted 50 years ago and implemented routinely in most industrialized countries, including by Microsoft's subsidiaries operating in those countries. Lionbridge Technologies does not give a damn about the UN Global Compact but their subsidiaries in other countries also have to respect those dispositions. Only in the US...

 

Paid Time Off Matters: Ensuring minimum standards for the people at our suppliers

It's vacation time! Microsoft's requirement that it's suppliers provide at least 15 days of paid time off is therefore especially important now. But when is it going to be implemented? Find below the original text of Brad Smith's March 26 post on Microsoft's official blog. Brad Smith is General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft.