Home decor giant Williams-Sonoma has been hit with a complaint over its aggressive diversity-based hiring campaign, which has resulted in an outsized number of women and minorities in its workforce.
The San Francisco-based company behind such popular brands as West Elm and Pottery Barn is under fire for the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts outlined in its 2024 annual report.
America First Legal (AFL), a conservative group, alleges in a complaint to the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that the company’s DEI hiring practices constitute “unlawful” discrimination.
“The toxic, divisive, and unlawful DEI policies of woke corporations are a clear and present danger to the Constitution’s guarantee of legal equality,” said AFL attorney Reed Rubinstein, who is leading the complaint.
The $8bn-a-year retail giant did not respond to The Mail’s request for comment.
Home decor giant Williams-Sonoma has received a complaint over its diversity-based hiring campaign.
The San Francisco-based company is led by CEO Laura Alber, who earns $24 million a year.
DEI is a front-line issue in America’s culture wars. Advocates say it helps more women and minorities get jobs and college. Critics say it unfairly denies opportunities to others who might be better candidates.
Reed Rubinstein, AFL attorney
According to the complaint, Williams-Sonoma uses job applicants’ race, sex and national origin to help decide whether to hire and promote candidates and which outside companies to award contracts to.
The company’s recent annual report boasts that an aggressive DEI push has led to women making up 68 percent of its workforce, with 41 percent coming from a “minority ethnic group.”
The same goes for the company’s leadership, which is headed by Laura Alber, a CEO who earns $24 million a year: 57 percent of board members are women and 29 percent are classified as “diverse.”
In other documents, the company says it is working to “increase Black representation in our company” as well as deciding which vendors to award contracts to.
While these statements seem indisputable to many and commonplace in corporate America, the AFL claims they are illegal, as it is never acceptable to distribute jobs and contracts based on skin color.
AFL also wrote to the company’s board of directors, urging members to drop their DEI work and singling out Disney and Target among a growing list of companies that have faced an anti-DEI backlash from conservatives.
Its DEI initiatives are “legally suspect and highly controversial” and create “material market and reputational risks,” AFL says.
“Incantations of ‘inclusion and belonging’ do not absolve corporate boards of directors from their fiduciary obligation to comply with anti-discrimination laws,” Rubinstein said.
He criticized the company’s “leftist managers” for their “idiosyncratic and frankly anti-American political and social views.”
The EEOC, which enforces workplace discrimination laws, does not have to act on the complaints, which have skyrocketed in recent years.
The AFL has filed complaints with the EEOC against the workplace diversity plans of the NFL, Major League Baseball and dozens of companies, including Starbucks, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, Activision Blizzard and Kellogg.
Many companies that adopted DEI policies in the wake of the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in May 2020 have backed away from them for fear of angering conservative customers.
Williams-Sonoma is behind such popular brands as West Elm
Pottery Barn and its various subdivisions are also run by Williams-Sonoma
Some companies have received public letters from shareholders since 2021 indicating that their DEI plans constitute unlawful discrimination and violate directors’ duties to investors.
Anti-DEI groups were boosted by the June 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions, a ruling that does not directly affect employers.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president of the United States, has been highly critical of DEI initiatives.
For some, DEI programs are important and necessary, as they can help overcome historical racism and sexism and make it easier for people of all backgrounds to advance in education and work.
Critics say it is a form of reverse discrimination that unfairly affects straight white men and others.
Others say DEI programs may be well-intentioned but rarely achieve their desired goals, and that mandatory workshops on “microaggressions” and “white fragility” often make matters worse by fostering divisions in offices and classrooms.
An Ipsos poll conducted in April found that 61 percent of voters rated DEI as a “good thing.”
Still, a Gallup poll conducted around the same time found that only 38 percent of people wanted companies to take a stance on current events, a 10 percentage point drop from 2022.
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