Apple shareholders voted against the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes at the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.
Ahead of the vote, CEO Tim Cook warned that potential changes in US law could impact the company’s DEI policy.
Under the leadership of US President Donald Trump, several tech giants, including Google and Facebook’s parent company Meta, have already cut their diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.
DEI initiatives aim to ensure that all individuals, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or disability, have equal access to employment and are treated equally in the workplace.
For some time, such initiatives have faced fierce criticism from within the US Republican Party, where they are viewed as discriminatory and harmful to competition.
Pressure to eliminate these programmes has increased since Donald Trump took office and appointed Elon Musk to lead a drastic bureaucratic reorganisation.
However, Apple remains firm and asked its shareholders on Tuesday to vote against a motion to eliminate diversity programmes.
Trump said on Wednesday that Apple Inc. should end its DEI efforts, ramping up his pressure campaign to erase DEI policies from U.S. workplaces.
“Apple should get rid of DEI rules, not just make adjustments to them,” Trump wrote on Wednesday on his social media site.
