Microsoft: After we said we'll try to promote more Black people, the US govt accused us of discrimination
- Reference: 1602033321
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/07/microsoft_diversity_allegation/
- Source link:
The Windows giant went [1]public to say it received a letter last week from the Department of Labor accusing it of possible illegal discrimination in trying to diversify the upper echelons of its workforce.
As Redmond's general counsel Dev Stahlkopf put it, the department suggested "Microsoft’s commitment to double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors and senior leaders in our US workforce by 2025 could constitute unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, which would violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act."
That diversity program was set out by CEO Satya Nadella [2]in June , and involves spending $150m on programs to, among other things, make Microsoft a more inclusive and diverse place to work, and to develop internal talent and promote people to leadership roles who may otherwise be overlooked. According to Microsoft's employment stats for 2019
[3]PDF
, the vast majority of its managers, directors, and executives are White men.Microsoft forks out $3m in back pay settlement to make Feds' hiring discrimination probe go away [4]READ MORE
The Dept of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs took exception to this diversity drive, and in its missive to Microsoft wrote that the policy "appears to imply that employment action may be taken on the basis of race." In effect, President Trump's government is accusing Microsoft of putting people of color unfairly ahead of White staffers, and wants assurances this isn't happening. "The letter asked us to prove that the actions we are taking to improve opportunities are not illegal race-based decisions," said Stahlkopf.
Microsoft, in its defense, said it strives to further its employees regardless of their race, and that it tries to ensure everyone gets a fair crack at moving up the ladder. It's not hard to see that the diversity push, as described, tries to make sure certain folks aren't left behind, left out, or unfairly passed over, rather than prefer one race over another. Stahlkopf also reminded us that, as a government contractor, Microsoft is required to diversify its workforce as per Uncle Sam's own policies.
"We are clear that the law prohibits us from discriminating on the basis of race," she said.
"We also have affirmative obligations as a company that serves the federal government to continue to increase the diversity of our workforce, and we take those obligations very seriously. We have decades of experience and know full well how to appropriately create opportunities for people without taking away opportunities from others. Furthermore, we know that we need to focus on creating more opportunity, including through specific programs designed to cast a wide net for talent for whom we can provide careers with Microsoft.
One thing remains true of all our programs. We hire and promote the most qualified person
"One thing remains true of all our programs. We hire and promote the most qualified person. And nothing we announced in June changes that. Instead, our continued focus is to work hard to consider and develop the broadest range of qualified candidates for opportunities."
Stahlkopf also said Microsoft will respond to the office's letter, and, if necessary, defend itself in court. She went on to list a number of Microsoft initiatives aimed at bolstering its diversity, including increasing funding for STEM education, recruiting at historically Black colleges and universities, and opening offices in economically depressed areas.
For what it's worth, a letter from the compliance office carries a fair amount of weight, as the watchdog oversees companies contracted to do work for Uncle Sam, such as Microsoft, and it can prevent corporations from landing lucrative supply deals with three-letter-acronym organizations and other government bodies.
We've asked the Department of Labor for its reaction to Microsoft's web missive.
Redmond said it revealed the nature of the compliance office's letter "in a spirit of transparency," whereas it's likely the software giant was fed up sparring with bureaucrats. Just a few weeks ago, Microsoft agreed to cough up $3m in back pay to [5]settle allegations , with the usual caveat of no admission of wrongdoing, raised by the Dept of Labor that it illegally discriminated against people of color in its hiring practices between 2012 and 2014. ®
Get our [6]Tech Resources
[1] https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/10/06/ofccp-diversity-employment-laws/
[2] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/06/23/addressing-racial-injustice/
[3] https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4aqv1
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/17/microsoft_early_resolution_conciliation_agreement/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/17/microsoft_early_resolution_conciliation_agreement/
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Dammed if you do....
Damned by the US department of labour if you do promote based on race, damned by some clever people on Twitter if you don't.
Re: Dammed if you do....
Eventually I am hoping that most people are going to realize that the supposedly clever people on Twitter (Facebook, YouTube, et alia) are only clever in the Yorkshire meaning of the word.
Just do what I do.
Hire on merit alone. Simples.
Outsource personnel actions...
to the most qualified group, the government, of course. Instead of being under _threat_ of odious Justice Dept. supervision, just turn it over to them! They'll know exactly how to balance *all the things*, right?
On the plus side, they probably won't do _worse_ than Microsoft has. And the stock will rise when Wall Street realizes headcount and costs will decrease gradually in the multisided deadlock that will ensue. And the managers will have ready excuses for future problems.
Everybody wins!Eexcept for a few nobodies, right?
I have an idea...
Here's a radical idea... How about everyone just ignore race and promote whoever is best suited for the job!?
I think most organisations have been doing this since year dot as it's usually best for business... However as there's often a disparity in the number of black people in senior roles then it's instantly deemed to be racism. It also seems strange that it's only black people that seem to be discriminated against too, all other minority groups seem to be more proportionally represented and certain groups of people seem to excel. It's far too easy and very lazy to draw the conclusion that racism is the underlying reason for this disparity. If we were to follow on with this very skewed logic we must also conclude that non-black people are discriminated against in athletic running events as they well under-represented, in fact the top ten 100m sprinters in history are all black. Would we dare state that black people are better at running than their non-black counterparts? If yes, then you've acknowledged that there are differences between the races which instantly makes you a racist. If no, then athletics must be incredibly racist.
Perhaps we need to introduce 'positive discrimination' in athletics? We can 'promote' white sprinters to give them a artificial advantage against their competitors in order to reduce the amount of racism that is clearly taking place and as 73% of the USA population is white so they should make sure that this is reflected in their athletic teams even if it means giving faster black runners the boot.
Positive discrimination (affirmative action) is by its very definition a racist act. You are discriminating against one (or several/many) group(s) of people to give an unfair and undeserved advantage to another in order to 'correct' a disparity. Even if we accept the flawed hypothesis that the initial disparity was caused by racism then we are just using further racism to correct it! To coin the old adage, two wrongs don't make a right.
Judge people based on the content of their character rather than the colour of their skin.
Dammed if you do....
Etc...etc