Apple investors urge company to conduct civil rights audit of treatment of female employees, minors

Apple shareholders have approved a proposal urging the iPhone maker to conduct an independent audit assessing its treatment of female and minority employees, offering a rare rebuke to the company. with a management team operating the most valuable company in the world.

The measure was adopted on Friday in Apple The annual meeting is non-binding, so the Cupertino, California, company is not required to adopt the recommendation.

But denying shareholders’ wishes would put Apple in an uncomfortable position, especially since the company has long considered itself a civil rights fighter. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook reiterated that belief on Friday in response to a question from a shareholder during the meeting held remotely.

“I have long believed that inclusion and diversity are essential,” says Cook.

Like other big tech companies, Apple’s workforce – particularly in well-paid technical positions – is largely comprised of white and Asian men, an imbalance the industry has faced. This business has been trying to solve for many years.

Apple’s board of directors has opposed a shareholder proposal to seek a citizenship audit that has finally been made public. The company points to recent civil rights advances inside and outside of Apple that make third-party audits of its activities unnecessary.

Initiatives include Apple making a pledge of $130 million (approximately Rs 993.5 crores) to racial equity and equity funds following the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The company also said it is increasing wages for women and minority employees and hiring more female, black and Hispanic workers.

During Friday’s meeting, Cook said Apple has achieved gender pay equity every year since 2017 and now has racial pay equity in the United States. He also said that 59 percent of Apple’s leadership positions over the past year have been filled by people from “underrepresented communities.”

But advocates of the civil rights proposal say Apple hasn’t done enough, forcing outsiders to investigate periodic reports of sexual harassment, discrimination and other abuses. in the company, the company has 154,000 people worldwide.

The proposal gained momentum after Apple last year hired a former Facebook product manager, Antonio Garcia Martinez, to join its ad team __ a move that sparked a wave of outcry among Facebook users. employees accused him of making false and racist remarks in a 2016 book called “Chaos Monkeys.” Apple quickly cut ties with Garcia Martinez following the backlash.

Last year, Apple also raised privacy concerns when it announced plans to scan iPhones for images of child sexual abuse. Complaints about that scanning program prompted Apple to back away from that plan, but it provided another rallying point for civil rights audit advocates.

Most shareholder proposals are rejected outright when they are opposed by the boards of public companies. That was the case with five other shareholder proposals in Apple’s meeting on Friday.

Apple shareholders are generally ardent supporters of the company because of the huge wealth it has created. Apple is now worth close to $2.7 trillion (about Rs 2,06,35,000 crore), with most of its profits made during the past two years of a pandemic that has decimated its products and services. they become more popular.

However, Apple’s proposed citizenship audit has won the support of two consulting firms that often influence the votes of institutional shareholders. The audit proposal was supported by 5.13 million shares and opposed by 4.45 million shares, with 131.2 million shares abstaining, according to Apple Securities and Exchange Commission filings. .

Dieter Waizenegger, chief executive officer of SOC Investment Group, was one of the shareholders who submitted the citizenship proposal. “Investors listened to Apple retail and corporate employees, who bravely spoke out against unequal and harmful conditions even under threat of retaliation. .”

Similar shareholder proposals seeking civil rights audits have been passed over the past year at several other publicly held companies, including CitiGroup.

Although he did not say whether Apple intends to file a citizenship audit, Cook described gender and racial equality as “essential to the future of our company.”