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?

Everyone's is a socialist in a pandemic

Excellent opinion by Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times.

Microsoft decides to pay supplier's employees impacted by Corona virus consequences at work

Announced by Brad Smith, not clear how this will be implemented.

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?

A few films about union organizing

American Factory, 2019 (on Netflix)

En guerre, 2018 (At war)

Outsourced, 2006 

Willmar 8 documentary, 1981 

Norma Rae, 1979

Notice how few there are...

 

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?

 

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.

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 story of our small union as told by Bloomberg-Businessweek

Here. RIP?

Is Tech finally realizing contractors employees need benefits too?

In Fast Company magazine, this article about how Survey Monkey changed its standards and benefits requirements for its contractors employees. If they can do it, all the big ones can and should have done it long time ago. Who is going to put the pressure on all? Progressive shareholders? Concerned journalists/media? 

A story about people trying to organize in high tech

In the magazine Jacobin. Many similarities with our own story: from illegally firing the first person who asks for more benefits for everybody to outsourcing the whole lab to get rid of the union (run away shop tactic).

A bit of anger - from Hand to Mouth by Linda Tirado

I recently read 'Hand to Mouth, Living in Bootstrap America', by Linda Tirado (2014). Below is what she writes on page 11. it is not that I agree we are/were not better paid than minimum wage but what causes the deep anger and frustration is the discrimination concerning the lack of 'benefits', the lack of respect that was initiated and is still perpetrated by companies like Microsoft and most high tech firms in the US toward their "temps'. Who remembers Bob Herbold and his despise for "useless fixed assets"? Unfortunately, the more things change...

Apple buses attacked in Silicon Valley: symbols of protests against gentrification?

Article in The Guardian by Olivia Solon.

This is not the first time that the corporate buses that ship workers from the city to Silicon Valley have been targeted. In 2013 a window was smashed on a Google bus in Oakland, across the San Francisco Bay. The following year, protesters blocked buses and brandished banners to express their discontent over the privatisation of the Bay Area’s transport system.

The buses have become symbols of gentrification and the perception that the tech sector is responsible for pushing up housing prices in the city, making it unaffordable for those without six-figure salaries.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

MLK DAY 2018

Read or reread the Letter from a Birmingham jail? and this opinion in The Guardian. Top it off with Bernie Sanders. Take good care. Let us remember Microsoft offers a paid vacation day to its direct employees for MLK day (only since 2016) but does not, as far as we know, require the same for its contractors employees. Maybe 2o18 would be a good time to review the implementation of the 'at least 15 days of paid time off' policy, ask with a survey how it's beneficiaries feel about it and how it could be improved upon? Just saying... it could be a good use of part of the new corporate tax breaks?

Walmart offers 10 weeks of paid parental leave

PL+US just emailed us: Over 500,000 Walmart employees just got a massive increase in their paid parental leave!New birthing parents now get 10 weeks at full pay, and non-birthing parents get 6 weeks at full-pay, if they’re full-time workers. 

This is the biggest single expansion of paid parental leave that's ever occurred in the private sector -- and it’s raised the bar for all companies in the U.S.

This is great news but considering the base pay is now at $11 per hour it remains not too costly for Walmart that announced at the same time they were going to lay off thousands of workers employed in 63 Sam's Club stores they are to close.

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.

Paid maternity leave: an elite benefit in the US, the haves and the have nots and Trump's promise

As reported in USA Today, this new report by PL+US about the haves and the have nots of paid family leave. Download the report. As they resume: put simply the people who most need it are the less likely to have paid family leave. Just found out: what Trump promises in his proposed budget but there are no precisions about the funding. From the Washington Post. 

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.

Recent stories of 'exploited temp workers', 'content serfs' for Facebook or Google by Annalee Newitz for Ars Technica

Here is the story of the 'content moderators' for Facebook and the two posts about the Google raters, the first one and the second one. Unfortunately typical stories of joint employment and retaliation against the workers who dare speaking up. Sounds very familiar with what happened to us. Hope they'll file charges with NLRB including the so called confidentiality agreement that is very probably excessive as it was in Lionbridge's case. Excellent reporting by Annalee Newitz with Ars Technica. Thank you very much Annalee. And if you dare complain about your working conditions at Amazon (as a contracted security officer) and try to organize, be ready to be retaliated against.

A story about the absence of paid maternal leave in the Washington Post

This pregnant Mom had two jobs (or tried to) that did not provide any paid maternal leave: one with Maximhealthcare, the other with Uber.  It looks like she started working for "Maxim" in 2010, making about $20K per year but without any benefits. I wonder what are Maxim's profits, how much they made during all those years they did not provide any benefits to workers very probably misclassified as temporary.

Starbucks still has to deal with its discriminatory approach to paid family leave

The best post I have found so far about the Starbucks saga after their annual shareholder meeting is by Emily Peck for the Huffington Post. The tough question remains: what's next? We'd say more push and pressure, publicly and behind the scene. Where were/are the faith groups when so many own stock? Afraid to stand up for new parents and families? 

Recent paid parental leave announcements (by Fairygodboss)

Just found out about Fairygodboss and their listing of the most recent paid parental leave announcements.

The 'family friendly benefits' supported by the American Sustainable Business Council

Read ASBC's guiding principles where the number 1 is providing family friendly benefits and number 8 includes "when contracting for labor seek to ensure that employers provide family friendly benefits'. ASBC supports the introduction of national paid leave via The FAMILY Act, reintroduced in the Senate by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and in the House by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). See the details here.

Passing paid family leave in Washington State: Is your State Rep in favor or against?

A message from Working Washington:

We have a real chance to pass paid family leave in Washington State this year. We have momentum — but we need your help.

A strong paid family leave proposal (HB 1116) has already passed out of the House Labor committee and the House Appropriations committee. The next step is to secure majority support for the bill so it can pass on the floor of the House.

It takes 50 votes to get a majority in the State House, and we’re not there yet. Help us get it done: contact your State Representatives and ask them to support statewide paid family leave by passing HB 1116.

Then when you hear back from your representatives, tell us what they say, and we'll add it to our public vote count. We're going to track where every member of the State House stands on paid family leave, because we think every voter should know where their representatives stand on this issue — and every representative should know they’re accountable for their vote.

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY

Another project to support paid family leave, from a conservative perspective (although Brookings is more liberal than AEI)

AEI, the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution have joined forces to publish a series of blog posts under the title: "Paid family leave: an issue whose time have come?" The main authors are Aparna Mathur (AEI) and Isabel Sawhill (Brookings) but they have reached out for contributions by other 'experts'. As of today I have seen 7 such posts. Interesting but with what impact and where does it go? A few furious comments by people who see paid family leave as discriminatory for people who don't have children. Amazing. (see at the bottom of the extended entry).

More details about Pivotal ventures and paid leave

In the Seattle Times, Sandi Doughton gives some details about how Melinda Gates Pivotal Ventures is supporting paid leave projects: she began to think about inequities that persist even in the United States. "It made me realize that there are issues we need to look at"... 

Another cause Gates is tackling through Pivotal Ventures is paid family leave. The Gates Foundation offers its employees up to a year of paid leave to care for new children, and the city of Seattle recently bumped up its benefit to 12 weeks.

Programs like those are common in most other rich countries, but rare in the United States.

Gates said she’s been investing in public policy analyses to identify ways to create and fund family-leave programs.

“Ultimately, it’s up to governments to decide, but what I want to put out there are several different options,” she said.

 

When Mark Zuckerberg mentions unions as 'supportive communities'

In his recent post about Building global community Mark Zuckerberg mentions unions as 'supportive communities': 

Building a global community that works for everyone starts with the millions of smaller communities and intimate social structures we turn to for our personal, emotional and spiritual needs.

Whether they're churches, sports teams, unions or other local groups, they all share important roles as social infrastructure for our communities. They provide all of us with a sense of purpose and hope; moral validation that we are needed and part of something bigger than ourselves; comfort that we are not alone and a community is looking out for us; mentorship, guidance and personal development; a safety net; values, cultural norms and accountability; social gatherings, rituals and a way to meet new people; and a way to pass time.

Working Washington: Sorry Starbucks, but that’s not ok.

Starbucks new paid parental leave policy

	Corporate employees (i.e. public relations, executives)	Store employees (i.e. baristas, shift supervisors)
Birth mother	18 weeks paid	6 weeks paid
Other new parent	12 weeks paid	0 weeks paid

Source: History of Partner Benefits, news.starbucks.com (at the very end).

 

Starbucks recently announced a new paid parental leave policy that provides 18 weeks paid time off for birth moms who are corporate employees... but only 6 weeks paid for birth moms who are baristas. Other new parents would get 12 weeks paid time off if they work in corporate... but no paid time at all if they work in a store. Tell Starbucks you love that they’re providing parental leave — but they need to explain why their policy seems to say that baristas' kids are worth less. >>>

---

Sorry Starbucks, but that’s not ok.

Do baristas need less time at home with a new child? Are their kids worth less than the children of corporate executives?

We're not sure how Starbucks can possibly explain this policy — so we figured we should ask. Click to send a letter to the Starbucks public relations department asking them to explain why baristas deserve less parental leave than corporate employees get.

The thought counts for a lot. So does the policy.

Thanks,

Working Washington

A second team focusing on promoting paid leave: Pay+Leave - They protest the new policy offered by Starbucks that does not include dads

We just discovered the existence of Pay+Leave. See their strategy and their campaign targeting Starbucks. Starbucks announced improved paid parental leave but apparently left out many employees. A story reminiscent of what happened at Netflix a while ago. Anybody with Starbucks stock? Sign the petition started on change.org to ask Starbucks to include dads.

Why paid leave is good for business - by Panorama Global and the Boston Consulting Group

Gabrielle Fitzgerald of Panorama Global partnered with the Boston Consulting Group to produce a study titled: 'Why paid leave is good for business".
She writes : We worked alongside the Boston Consulting Group to analyze the costs and benefits of offering inclusive paid family and medical leave programs, and will use that evidence to persuade American companies that adopting such policies is better for business and the wellbeing of employees. While it remains to be seen how persuasive such evidence can be, it cannot hurt to have it collected, analyzed and largely shared. In the absence of unions, pushing for paid leave will require other tools for the workers presently left out without paid leaves: like shareholder advocacy.

Soon a new team promoting paid leave in the private sector?

Read the ad recently posted by Panorama Global (headed by Gabrielle Fitzgerald) about its new project: Panorama has received funding from a prominent U.S. philanthropist to better understand the private sector and how they make decisions regarding paid leave. Based on our findings, we will test different approaches to influencing those companies and see if we can find the right mix of strategy and tactics to move the needle on paid leave programs in the U.S. Our goal by the end of this project is to have a much deeper understanding of the landscape, and determine a recommended path forward to drive adoption of paid leave programs in the private sector. A concern shared by the recent research published by the Center for American Progress. Who is the mysterious and still anonymous 'prominent US philanthropist" supporting this initiative? Could she be Melinda Gates? She expressed several times her concern about paid family leave.

Ikea and Trump on paid leave

Here is an interesting post from the pro-employer blog The Employerologist by Janette Levey Frisch . Here is how she explains the core of the matter:

Currently, IKEA employees receive up to 5 days’ paid parental leave, and up to 8 weeks’ paid disability leave to new mothers. Effective January 1, 2016, under IKEA’s new policy, new parents who have worked at IKEA for at least one year can receive up to four months’ paid leave. This new policy applies to both mothers and fathers, whether they are birth, adoptive or foster parents. For the first six weeks they will receive their full base pay, and half their base pay for the next six weeks. Workers with 3 or more years of service will be eligible for 8 weeks of full pay and 8 weeks of half pay. By U.S. standards this is a very generous policy. Compared to IKEA’s home country however, this is quite stingy. In Sweden, workers can receive up to 68 weeks off and the government subsidizes it. Other countries also provide more generous, paid time off. Is that why IKEA made this move? Not really.

IKEA says it expects that this expansion of paid leave will improve productivity and reduce turnover. IKEA is not alone. Other US companies, such as Netflix, Adobe and Etsy have also rolled out comparatively generous paid leave, though their programs tend to apply only to either top-tiered or salaried employees, whereas IKEA’s benefits apply to both hourly and salaried workers.

Let me repeat our mantra: when is Microsoft going to emulate IKEA and improve upon its minimal paid leave standards for all its suppliers employees? When googling about this info, I find references to articles in USA Today, The Atlantic, Forbes, but no Washington State publication. if I did not subscribe to this specialized blog I would not know about this. My mistake as there was a reprint of an AP wire in the Seattle Times. 

2016 Expedia Vacation Deprivation Survey: Strange and Misleading

The presentation of the 2016 Expedia deprivation Survey is here. The headline is: Work-Life Imbalance: Expedia’s 2016 Vacation Deprivation Study Shows Americans Leave Hundreds of Millions of Paid Vacation Days Unused. The study claims:  Americans received 15 paid vacation days from their employers in the past year, and took only 12. With three days unused, this means American workers effectively failed to take approximately 375 million paid vacation days within the past year. What about the millions of american workers who don't receive any paid vacation? They don't seem to appear in the survey. They certainly would like to take vacation if they could afford it but they seem invisible to Expedia. Reading the survey's analysis one has the impression many Americans choose to take less paid vacation than they have. How misleading is that when so many don't have any paid vacation at all! Though many American companies indeed 'gift' their workers between five and 15 salaried days off per year, the most recent study (2014) from the US-based Center for Economic and Policy Research found that nearly one in four private-sector workers doesn’t receive any paid vacation time.  That's what has to change and it is somewhat intriguing, even shocking that Expedia does not point this out. Why? obviously if millions of workers were getting paid vacation that would be good for Expedia's business?

Zero weeks. Zero request

Yesterday was Microsoft's annual meeting. No question was asked about the implementation of the 'at least 15 days of paid time off' requirement nor about the lack of specific paid maternity/paternity leave or the lack of paid company holidays (like Thanksgiving we just celebrated). We were unable to find Microsoft's shareholders willing to even ask such questions. Zero weeks is a documentary film about this issue. Here is the trailer. While it's important to push for legislation and a funding system that would cover every employee, it should be clear that many very wealthy corporations (like Microsoft) could easily afford to pay right away for paid family leaves. Why don't they? Because nobody asks them to! How long will it take for someone to speak up?

Multinationals and the lack of paid leave in the US

An interesting brief from Judith Warner and Danielle Corley of the Center for American Progress looks at how multinational operating in the US deal with the lack of mandatory paid leave by making their own policies. 

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.

 

Girl Scouts USA expands its paid parental leave

Read the press release announcing up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

Must Read: The Shareholder Action Guide, by Andrew Behar

Available on Amazon. Andrew Behar is CEO of As You Sow. 

"Founded in 1992, As You Sow promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies. Our efforts create large-scale systemic change by establishing sustainable and equitable corporate practices.

As You Sow was founded on the belief that many environmental and human rights issues can be resolved by increased corporate responsibility. As investor representatives, we communicate directly with corporate executives to collaboratively develop and implement business models that reduce risk, benefit brand reputation, and protect long term shareholder value while simultaneously bringing about positive change for the environment and human rights."

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.

The road to shareholder activism

While we are contemplating again how to activate a shareholder activism campaign toward Microsoft it's worth looking at a few documents that should inspire us. Below is the text sent by Josh Zinner, CEO of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, right after Donald Trump's victory. 

On NPR: On Your Mark Give Birth Go Back To Work

In the NPR program All Things Considered, this all too frequent story about the lack of paid parental leave in the US . Who is going to speak up for Microsoft's supplier's employees so that they get the same paid parental benefits as Microsoft's direct employees? What about progressive shareholders? Are there any? They could influence policy changes in many companies (including Microsoft and tis suppliers) while impatiently waiting for the legislative changes that would emulate laws that exist in all other countries.

Melinda in support of paid family leave

At the very end of this interview published on backchannel, on September 28,  Melinda Gates expresses again her concern and support for paid family leave (you can also read this part below). What about convincing Microsoft to do the decent thing by requiring its suppliers to provide paid parental leave (and paid holidays) for all their employees?