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Microsoft trumpets updated HR-friendly policies (that comply with recently changed laws)

Bins non-competes and promises salary transparency

Microsoft has announced changes to labour relations policy for its US workforce that touch on noncompete clauses, confidentiality agreements and pay transparency.

“Microsoft is announcing new changes and investments aimed at further deepening our employee relationships and enhancing our workplace culture,” wrote HR execs Amy Pannoni and Amy Coleman on the company blog.

The pair wrote that the changes reflect employee fedback.

They also reflect changes to laws in Microsoft’s home state of Washington, specifically with regards to pay transparency and non-disclosure agreements.

Microsoft says it prohibited the practice of asking job applicants for salary history several years ago and will publicly disclose salary ranges in its internal and external US job postings by January 2023. That date coincides with the day amendments to the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunity Act come into effect, requiring employers to disclose information about pay and other benefits in job postings in the state.

Microsoft has been in trouble in the past in this arena. Just last month it’s professional social network LinkedIn settled with the US Department of Labor over charges it systematically underpaid women in engineering, product and marketing roles.

The other change - again meeting requirements under Washington law - concerns policies on employees’ rights to discuss or share terms and conditions of employment or possible employer misconduct. Or as Microsoft puts it “fostering a safe space for concerns.”

“Separate from employee agreements, there have been times when Microsoft resolved disputes with employees or provided separation benefits through agreements that had typically included confidentiality provisions,” said the company.

“Microsoft’s U.S. settlement and separation agreements no longer include confidentiality language that prohibits workers from disclosing alleged conduct that they perceive is illegal discrimination, harassment, retaliation, sexual assault, or a wage and hour violation occurring in the workplace,” the post explains.

In March 2022, Washington governor Jay Inslee signed the Silence No More Act, which prohibited agreements containing nondisclosure provisions on settlements related to workplace incidents, thereby making it difficult for companies to cover up bad behaviour like wage violations and sexual harassment.

That law goes into effect Thursday 9 June, a day after Microsoft announced the policy change.

In 2019 Microsoft received attention surrounding normalized workplace harassment when an email chain detailed female work experiences full of personal accounts of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and microaggressions. Since then, it was alleged that founder and former CEO Bill Gates himself had a "reputation for questionable conduct in work-related settings."

The other policy change involves the removal of noncompete clauses, which are actually only enforceable in certain jurisdictions to begin with. For example, in California, they are automatically void except in extremely limited situations. In other states it can be less clear cut, but state laws in general trend toward limiting or banning their enforcement.

“While our existing employee agreements have noncompete obligations, we do not endorse the use of such provisions as a retention tool,“ said Microsoft, as it announced it is removing them in the US, with the exception of senior leadership.

In addition to the changes, Microsoft said it would conduct a third-party civil rights audit of its workforce policies and practices, guided by U.S. civil rights law with the intent of identifying addressable issues. The Register reached out to Microsoft to find out if there were any plans to extend the policies to international employees and will update if there is a response. ®

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