Microsoft responds to OWS, institutes Global "Human Rights" Doctrine

Microsoft on Thursday announced that it is broadening the amount of information it publishes from its global vendors regarding their business ethics, environmental policies, labor and human rights standards, and respect for intellectual property.

Microsoft's "Vendor Code of Conduct" is a set of rules that vendors, their employees, agents and subcontractors must adhere to if they want to keep doing business with Microsoft, and the company is looking to make more of this information available to shareholders, customers, and individuals so they can take a deeper look at how Microsoft is holding up its social responsibilities.

So Microsoft's efforts to promote sustainability will also promote transparency. The company will begin including summaries of vendor reports in its annual Citizenship Report in 2013, and vendors will be encouraged to utilize the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, and make their reports public on their own as well.

“If more firms showed such leadership it would hold more suppliers accountable for protecting human and workers’ rights, and reduce the legal and reputational risks that companies and their shareholders face, said New York City Comptroller John C. Liu, who proposed this change to Microsoft. "The New York City Pension Funds are taking this proposal to other companies and expect that they will follow the prudent path Microsoft has chosen.”

Some of the tenets in Microsoft's Vendor Code of Conduct (.pdf here) include the assurance of legal wages by country, a maximum 60 hour workweek in all countries, no employees under the age of 15 anywhere, and the guarantee of safe, humane working conditions.