The Breitbart News reported on May 5 that Coca-Cola’s diversity plan, which caused widespread controversy and backlash, has been terminated.
According to Bradley Gayton, former general counsel of Coca-Cola, the diversity plan disclosed in January, if outside law firms could not meet, at least half of at least 30 percent of billable hours, from black lawyers, those law firms would be penalized by Coca-Cola. It was headline news in the major media at the time.
Some questioned whether Guyton’s policy violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that employers cannot discriminate against people on the basis of race. The Project on Fair Representation, a legal defense foundation, released a letter to Coca-Cola last Wednesday warning the company’s outside counsel that “racial quota requirements” are against the law.
Bradley Gayton, the architect of the diversity program, abruptly resigned last month after less than a year in the job. Scott Leith, a spokesman for Coca-Cola, said Gayton’s successor, Ms. Monica Howard Douglas, is now evaluating the diversity program.
Although Guyton is no longer Coca-Cola’s general counsel, he signed a $12 million annual contract to serve as an adviser to Coca-Cola President and CEO James Quincey. It is unclear whether Guyton, in his consulting work, will have a say in the company’s outside law firm’s diversity plans.
The Breitbart News commented that the “diversity quota” is very similar to Coca-Cola’s popular anti-racism training that went viral in February, when Coca-Cola told employees what to do “to be less white.”
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