Paid Time Off MattersA (slow) progress report

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?

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.

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.

How much would paid family leave cost? How much does it cost in California?

Very often the articles about paid family leave do not look at what the cost would be and how it would be financed. Here is an article published in Fortune magazine in 2015 that looks at the costs induced in New Jersey and California that rely of a small deduction on each employee's payroll. In California the cost is estimated at about $30 per year per employee. Less than $3 per month. As we wrote in the previous post the cost of having paid public holidays is significantly higher, between $1 to $2+ per hour but many companies could/can easily afford such a cost considering the billions they make in profits. So, who is going to raise this issue? In general and also pointing specifically at some corporations like we did for Microsoft and it's suppliers. Not that we don't think states and the federal government should not adopt legislation: they should but in the meantime engaging wealthy corporations that ignore the needs of their lowest paid workers could help.

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.

 

Microsoft's Corporate Social Responsibility Report for 2016: What's to be done?

On October 18, 2016, Microsoft published it's 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. We did not see any public article or comment about it. We think it is an important document as it reiterates Microsoft stated commitment to respect human rights as they are detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the covenants listed below. As you can see this commitment  also clearly includes Microsoft's suppliers employees. Unfortunately, as we had noticed one year ago, Microsoft remains in breach of several clauses of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted 50 years ago.

What's to be done to incite Microsoft to implement it's commitment so that it's suppliers employees get paid public holidays on top of the present minimal standard of 15 days of 'paid time off' and specific paid parental leave? We think shareholder activism is presently the best way to raise the issue with Microsoft's leadership.

Frustrating4th of July: Paid holiday discrimination thanks to Microsoft and Lionbridge Technologies

I have been working full time for Microsoft via their supplier Lionbridge Technologies for 4.5 years, since December 5 2011 when I was part of the first team in their app certification lab. I am still misclassified by Lionbridge as a 'temporary worker' because we had the audacity to vote for a union in September 2014.
In January 2015, Lionbridge decided that after 9 months of full time employment, its temporary workers will be laid off or be 'converted' to 'regular' status with the corresponding benefits that include paid holidays. So what am I complaining about?
There is an exception to this conversion scheme: if you happen to be represented by a union in the process of a collective bargaining negotiation, this conversion does not apply to you. We discovered this very recently as Lionbridge had chosen not to share with us this policy change except when they started telling co-workers they could not get any pay raise nor paid holidays because of the union. The implicit/explicit message was clear: get rid of the union and get pay raises and paid holidays. The NLRB is presently investigatng a union's charge in this matter against Lionbridge for bad faith bargaining and meanwhile it will be one more 4th of July without pay.
As Lionbridge is very aware this creates a hardship for the employees who really need a full week pay, they 'generously' accept that people work 10 hours per day during the rest of the week, to compensate for the 8 hours they have not been paid on July 4th. Of course this is not considered overtime. As for Microsoft, they keep looking the other way, even more so now that the union claimed they should be considered a joint employer.

In March 2015, Microsoft required that its suppliers provide at least 15 days of paid time off to their employees. As I have accumulated enough paid time off I am able this year to use it to get paid on July 4.  Does that represent a huge improvement?

The reality is that in 1998, that's 18 years ago, Microsoft had required that its suppliers provide 13 days of paid time off to their employees: apparently this policy had been abandoned sometimes during those 18 years since it was never mentioned or implemented until our union started to protest about the lack of any benefits. 18 years later the difference is only 2 extra days.
Microsoft's requirement is still lacking as it  does not not respect the terms of article 7 (d) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  that affirms the rights of workers to  'Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as remuneration for public holidays': a clear requirement that public holidays be paid on top of usual paid time off. Although this Convention was never ratified by the US Senate, Microsoft voluntarily committed itself to implement all its content when they joined the UN Global Compact in 2006. That's ten years ago, ten years with thousands of workers deprived of their rights and the thousands/millions of dollars involved. 

That's why celebrating July 4th is still for me quite a stretch and a frustrating reminder of the paid holiday discrimination for thousands of misclassified temporary workers employed by Microsoft and its suppliers.

Philippe Boucher
President, Temporary Workers of America
Author of The Other Microsoft.