Kellogg Shareholders Will Vote On Auditing Company’s Diversity Initiatives And Returning ‘To Merits’
By Ben Zeisloft
Shareholders for the Kellogg Company are scheduled to vote Friday on a proposal to audit the multinational food conglomerate’s adherence to the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement, also known as DEI, and return the company to hiring and promotion decisions based on merit.
The proposal, which the board of directors recommended that shareholders oppose, would launch an examination of the company’s DEI initiatives with an ideologically diverse and independent group of employees, shareholders, and third-party entities. The text of the proposal noted that the Kellogg Company has “allocated significant resources and attention towards implementing social justice into workplace practices” through commitments to the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG.
“Across the political spectrum, all agree that employee success should be fostered and that no employees should face discrimination, but there is much disagreement about what nondiscrimination means,” the proposal said. “In practice, what ‘equity’ really means is the distribution of pay and authority on the basis of race, sex, orientation and ethnic categories rather than by merit.”