THE HOME DEPOT, INC. | Report on Respecting Workforce Civil Liberties at THE HOME DEPOT, INC.

Status
Filed
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
7
Resolution details
Company ticker
HD
Lead filer
Individual
Resolution ask
Conduct due diligence, audit or risk/impact assessment
ESG theme
  • Governance
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Resolved: Shareholders request the Board of Directors conduct an evaluation and issue a civil rights and
non-discrimination report within the next year, at reasonable cost and excluding proprietary information and
disclosure of anything that would constitute an admission of pending litigation, evaluating how The Home
Depot’s policies and practices impact employees and prospective employees based on their religion
(including religious views) or political views, and the risks those impacts present to The Home Depot’s
business.
Supporting statement
Supporting Statement: The Home Depot is one of the largest companies in the United States and employs over 490,000 people. As a
major employer, The Home Depot should respect the free speech and religious freedom of its employees. The
Home Depot is legally required to comply with many laws prohibiting discrimination against employees on a
variety of factors, including religion and sometimes political affiliation.
Respecting diverse views also allows The Home Depot to attract the most qualified talent, promote a healthy
and innovative business culture, serve its diverse customer base, and contribute to a healthy economic
market and marketplace of ideas.
Despite this, the 1792 Exchange’s 2023 report8
notes that The Home Depot does not provide its employees
with protection against viewpoint discrimination. While the Company expressly condemns9
and prohibits
discrimination based on a variety of characteristics, including “race, color, sex (gender), sexual orientation,
gender identity or expression, age, religion” and others, it maintains no such protection against employees of
diverse political beliefs.
Many companies also alienate their own employees by taking divisive stances on political issues. For
example, many companies have adopted radical stances and policies on sex reassignment surgery, termed
“gender-affirming care.” The Home Depot is one such example—the Company has pledged10 coverage for
“medically necessary transition-related care” for its employees and their children. The 2023 Viewpoint
Diversity Index11 also found that 78% of scored companies discriminate against religious nonprofits in their
charitable giving and 63% give money to legislation that undermines fundamental First Amendment freedoms.
According to the Freedom at Work survey, 60% of employees were concerned that their company would
punish them for expressing their religious or political views at work, and 54% said they feared the same for
sharing these views even on their private social media accounts.12 Once again, such concerns become
relevant in the case of Home Depot. The Company’s gift matching policy13 expressly excludes religious
groups; while a donation to an atheist 501(c)(3) would be eligible under said policy, a donation to a church or
mosque would not.
Companies may also face additional legal liability for DE&I programs that make distinctions based on race or
that discriminate based on religious practices, per the recent Supreme Court decisions in Students for Fair
Admission v. Harvard and Groff v DeJoy. In light of these risks, the Company must take immediate steps to
assess potential shortcomings and act to remedy these concerns.

Filed by Bowyer Research

How other organisations have declared their voting intentions

Organisation name Declared voting intentions Rationale
Kutxabank Gestion SGIIC SAU. Against Given the Company's existing disclosures, we do not believe that support for this proposal is warranted at this time

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