The shareholder revolt comes in the shadow of recent cases and the revelation that co-founder Bill Gates had a relationship with a company employee.
Microsoft's shareholders have backed a protest vote calling on the company to reveal more about its handling of sexual harassment claims, in the shadow of recent cases and the revelation that co- founder Bill Gates had a relationship with a company employee.
The call was a rare vote against management at the company's annual shareholder meeting and brought an immediate promise from Microsoft of more transparency. The company stopped short of saying it would reveal details about individual cases, and it did not make a commitment to reopen previous cases.
The shareholder revolt followed years of complaints from some workers that the company had brushed harassment claims under the rug. Microsoft's human resources department upheld only one claim against the group out of a total of 238 that were included in a class-action lawsuit, according to a shareholder proposal submitted by Arjuna Capital.
The reports of Bill Gates having inappropriate relationships and sexual advances towards Microsoft employees have put in question the culture set by top leadership and the board's role holding those accountable.
The board of Microsoft hired an external firm to look into a decades-old intimate relationship that Gates had with an employee. Gates stepped down from the board before the investigation was complete. The outcome of any investigation is not known.
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The shareholder vote dealt a blow to Microsoft's reputation with investors focused on environmental, social, and governance issues. Bank of America says that the group is the most widely held company in US ESG funds.
The resolution of sexual harassment claims would hurt a company's reputation and ability to hire if it wasn't dealt with effectively, according to shareholder advisory groups.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, said after the vote that there were new steps that would be taken. The dialogue we have had has helped advance our decision-making.
Smith said that the company had been gathering more information on harassment claims internally and that it was important to make this public as well.
In Microsoft's last financial year, it investigated 51 complaints and substantiated 47 of them, compared with the 142 cases it investigated the year before. He said that the decline in claims probably reflected the fact that more people were working from home.
Smith said that Microsoft would commission an independent review of how it handles harassment claims. He said that the company would think hard about making changes, but stopped short of promising that it would adopt any recommendations.
Smith said Microsoft would publish more details on the gender pay gap despite shareholder rejection of a separate proposal on the issue. He said that the company is required to publish the data in the UK.
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Drew Angerer has a listing image.
