Microsoft wants US suppliers to give employees paid time off

Microsoft says it will push its U.S. suppliers to give their employees doing work for the technology company paid time off.

Microsoft’s suppliers provide a range of services, such as maintenance and security. Microsoft says it has about 2,000 U.S. suppliers, but it does not know how many of those don’t provide paid time off.

Microsoft says suppliers with 50 or more employees will be asked to provide at least 15 days of paid time off, but only to employees that mainly work with Microsoft.

A spokeswoman for the Redmond, Washington, company says the rules will be written into future contracts, and those that don’t comply may be dropped as a supplier.

Microsoft Corp. is giving its suppliers 12 months to make the changes.