Ammon News - Apple shareholders voted to keep the tech giant's diversity, equity and inclusion policies on Tuesday, a win for management which had opposed efforts by a conservative group to scrap the program.

The vote at the iPhone maker's annual meeting was seen as a test of shareholder views about the value of DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.

A growing conservative backlash has pushed major U.S. companies, including Meta and Alphabet, to drop DEI initiatives ahead of and following Donald Trump's return to the U.S. presidency.

Trump has criticized corporate DEI programs as discriminatory and suggested the U.S. Department of Justice could investigate whether such efforts violate the law.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a free-market think-tank, had submitted the proposal titled "Request to Cease DEI Efforts" to the shareholder meeting. The proposal was defeated, with 210.45 million votes for it and 8.84 billion votes against it.

Proponents of the proposal argued that recent legal changes meant Apple would see an increase in discrimination cases if it continued DEI policies. Apple said it had an active oversight effort to avoid legal risks and that the proposal inappropriately restricted management.

While Apple discloses diversity data about its employee base, the company did not set targets or quotas. Many of its DEI efforts are in the form of programs such as a racial justice initiative under which it has provided support to historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S.

Apple also carries out DEI efforts outside of the U.S., such support for teaching coding skills to indigenous populations in Mexico and working with an Aboriginal community–led nonprofit pursuing criminal justice reform in Australia. Reuters