The board of tech giant Apple has criticised a shareholder demand that the employer cease its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, calling it an attempt to “micromanage” the company.
Ahead of the firm’s 2025 annual meeting next month, Apple said the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a conservative think tank in the US, planned to request that the company abolish its DEI programme, policies, department and goals.
The NCPPR proposal, shared in an Apple investor update, highlighted court cases that it said have called the legality of corporate DEI programmes into question.
It claimed “DEI poses litigation, reputational and financial risks to companies, and therefore financial risks to their shareholders, and therefore further risks to companies for not abiding by their fiduciary duties”.
The think tank cited the 29 June 2023 case of SFFA v. Harvard, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that discriminating on the basis of race in college admissions violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
NCPPR said: “As a result, the legality of corporate DEI programmes was called into question and 13 attorneys general warned that SFFA implicated corporate DEI programmes.”
The conservative think tank also claimed that implications for employers widened in 2024 when the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protected against discriminatory job transfers in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis.
NCPPR said “the ruling also lowered the bar for employees to successfully sue their employers for discrimination”, adding that this is “likely to lead to an increase in discrimination claims”.
“Sensibly, many major companies have responded by rolling back their DEI commitments and laying off DEI departments,” NCPPR continued.
“Alphabet and Meta cut DEI staff and DEI‑related investments; and Microsoft and Zoom laid off their entire DEI teams. Since Muldrow, John Deere publicly halted DEI‑related policies after Tractor Supply explicitly stated that it “eliminate[d] DEI roles and retire[d] our current DEI goals”.
The think tank claimed that Apple’s ‘Inclusion & Diversity’ programme and the company’s senior role of vice president of inclusion and diversity, along with further DEI policies, could mean that 50,000 of its 80,000 employees “are potentially victims” of discrimination related to these recent rulings.
The proposal claimed: “If even only a fraction of employees file suit, and only some of those prove successful, the cost to Apple could reach tens of billions of dollars.”
However, the Apple board rejected the claims its DEI policies put it at greater risk and recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal to cease all DEI efforts.
“The shareholder proposal is unnecessary as Apple already has a well‑established compliance programme,” the board said.
“The proposal also inappropriately attempts to restrict Apple’s ability to manage its own ordinary business operations, people and teams, and business strategies.”
The tech firm reiterated that it is “an equal opportunity employer” and “does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, or promoting on any basis protected by law”.
It added that the firm seeks to operate in compliance with applicable non‑discrimination laws, both in the US and in the many other jurisdictions in which it operates and that the employer “monitors and evolves its practices, policies, and goals as appropriate to address compliance risks”.
The tech firm said the request “inappropriately seeks to micromanage the company’s programmes and policies by suggesting a specific means of legal compliance”.
Shareholders will vote on the proposed changes at the company’s annual meeting on 25 February 2025.
