Policies endanger company’s entire financing structure, shareholders say
That didn’t take long. Less than a week after Pfizer was hit with a lawsuit over a fellowship program that excludes whites and Asians, shareholders are demanding that the company scrap a spate of race-conscious policies that they say put it at risk of further litigation.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 15, argues that Pfizer is violating federal law by excluding white and Asian applicants from its prestigious "Breakthrough Fellowship." In an open letter to Pfizer executives last week, shareholders allege that the program is just one of several policies that invite a "pandora’s box" of civil rights complaints.
Beyond the fellowship, they point to an apparent requirement that a fourth of Pfizer directors "identify as ethnically diverse," according to the company’s ESG reports and corporate governance principles. The pharmaceutical giant has also linked executive pay to the diversity of its employees, with hard targets set for the number of African Americans and Hispanics in management positions.
The letter, filed by the public interest law firm the American Civil Rights Project on behalf of shareholders, is the latest example of corporate investors taking action to challenge reverse discrimination. Over the past year, shareholders in Coca-Cola, JP Morgan, McDonalds, and Lowe’s have threatened to sue executives at each company who’ve implemented race-conscious policies, which they argue invite...
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