Microsoft moves to end secrecy in sexual harassment claims

SEATTLE — The wave of sexual harassment claims has toppled powerful men in entertainment, media and politics. Now it is also creating permanent changes in workplace policy at one giant technology company.

Microsoft, one of the world’s biggest software makers, said Tuesday that it had eliminated forced arbitration agreements with employees who make sexual harassment claims and was supporting a proposed federal law that would widely ban such agreements.

The moves make Microsoft an early company — and certainly the most prominent — to take such steps to end legal agreements that have been criticized for helping to perpetuate sexual abuse in the workplace. Forced arbitration lets companies keep harassment and discrimination claims out of court, effectively cloaking them from public view and, in some cases, allowing serial harassers to continue their conduct for years.

“The silencing of people’s voices has clearly had an impact in perpetuating sexual harassment,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer.

Microsoft’s action shows how the flood of harassment accusations has gone beyond individual cases to an examination of policy changes for ending the misconduct. That includes greater scrutiny of legal settlements that have silenced victims of abuse.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than half of U.S. workers are bound by arbitration clauses.

Since then, lawmakers have taken up the issue. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of senators, including Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., proposed legislation that would make forced arbitration in harassment cases unenforceable under federal law.