Microsoft just handed #MeToo a major victory

Microsoft's announcement that it will allow employees to sue the company for sexual harassment has handed the #MeToo campaign an important victory after months of revelations about predatory behavior and assault by powerful men in media, entertainment and technology, advocates said.

The software giant said this week it was scrapping employment agreements that require workers to settle harassment complaints in private and called itself the first Fortune 100 company to back a bill before Congress that would ban companies from forcing such disputes into closed-door arbitration.

'We concluded that if we were to advocate for legislation ending arbitration requirements for sexual harassment, we should not have a contractual requirement for our own employees that would obligate them to arbitrate sexual harassment claims,” Brad Smith, the president and chief legal officer, said in a statement released Wednesday.

'For this reason, effective immediately, we are waiving the contractual requirement for arbitration of sexual harassment claims in our own arbitration agreements for the limited number of employees who have this requirement.”

More than half of American workers have signed away their right to sue their employer for sexual harassment, gender or racial discrimination, according to a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Employee advocates say such contracts shield predators and perpetuate the problem. Some expressed hope Microsoft's decision, while affecting only a small number of its employees, could push other companies to drop their secrecy rules.

'Microsoft just jumped way ahead,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, which opposes legal agreements that silence whistleblowers. 'This will put pressure on other corporations to do just that.”

In his statement, Smith said Microsoft supported the bipartisan bill introduced earlier this month that would outlaw mandatory arbitration in sexual harassment cases and void existing employment contracts that demanded it.

Such arrangements allow accusations to stay secret, and companies have a say in who decides the cases, advocates say.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the bill's conservative sponsors, persuaded Microsoft to support the bill, Smith wrote.

Kate Brodock, chief executive of Women 2.0, a group that works to recruit women into the technology industry, said on Wednesday Microsoft's announcement reflects the power of the #MeToo movement, which has unleashed millions of stories about sexual harassment and assault on social media since October.

'When you're closed off and silenced in a corner - that's one of the biggest problems that has come to light from all of this,” Brodock said.

Still, she added, the movement's work is far from over.

'So many kudos to Microsoft,” she said, ' but for the industry, I hope this leads to more victories. There's still a lot of stuff to be done.”