In recent years, three major companies have been accused of serious fraud, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination, and an investment fund is seeking liquidation.
The $260 billion New York state pension fund has filed shareholder proposals asking Chipotle, Tesla and Wells Fargo to disclose how much the companies have spent resolving disputes and the total number of pending harassment and discrimination complaints. . They are trying to resolve it through arbitration and litigation. All three have been embroiled in lawsuits, investigations, or been the subject of reports of bad workplace practices. The New York fund says investors are ultimately being made to pay for poor management.
“We selected these companies because of years of lack of oversight of their employees by management and boards of directors,” Mark Johnson, a spokesman for New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said in a statement. luck. “Civil rights violations within the workplace can result in significant costs for businesses, including fines and fines, legal fees, costs associated with absenteeism, lost productivity, hiring difficulties, and leadership disruption.”
The proposal supplement lists the issues that led the Fund to submit the proposal. Automaker Tesla has been involved in “numerous serious allegations of racial and sexual harassment and discrimination,” according to a statement from the fund. These include the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. lawsuit on charges of racial harassment and retaliation in which black employees allegedly faced open hostility at a manufacturing facility in California; The EEOC says that black workers “regularly face graffiti, including variations of the N-word, swastikas, threats, and nooses, on desks and other equipment, in bathroom stalls, in elevators, and even on new vehicles coming off the production line.” “I encountered it,” he said. Last month, Tesla settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with a former elevator driver for $3.2 million plus damages. A proposed class action lawsuit is pending.
Recent controversies at Wells Fargo Bank include: news report The New York Retirement Fund said the company conducted fake interviews with diverse candidates for positions that were already filled. It added that the Southern District of New York was reportedly investigating possible violations of federal law due to the fake interview.company Also paid $3 billion in 2020 The company is trying to resolve criminal and civil investigations with various regulators that say its employees opened millions of fake accounts without customers’ consent and were able to collect fees they were not entitled to.
Burrito chain Chipotle EEOC lawsuit settled in 2023 The company paid $400,000 to three former employees, one of whom was a teenager, to settle sexual harassment lawsuits in which employees alleged that service managers subjected them to sexual advances and demands for sex. Ta. The manager isolated the three people by locking them in a Chipotle walk-in refrigerator, the EEOC said.
Chipotle and Tesla have yet to file their 2024 proxies, which include shareholder proposals and board recommendations on how the companies want investors to vote. Wells Fargo, on its behalf, called on investors to vote against the proposal. The board said New York state submitted a similar proposal to the company last year, which was supported by a majority of investors. Since then, the company has released a racial equity assessment and said:Substantial Changes to Our Policies and Practices” The company plans to remove confidentiality and nondiscrimination clauses from severance agreements for nonsupervisory employees in 2023 and update its harassment and discrimination policy in 2024, and the board has responded to shareholder proposals. He said he would make changes.
Wells Fargo said it had had “several” conversations with representatives of the fund in New York.
in a statement to luckA spokesperson for the Board of Audit said, “We have not been able to engage constructively with companies.” As for Wells Fargo, a spokesperson said the fund made the proposal again “after receiving majority support and nothing happened.”