YUM! BRANDS, INC. | Report on faith-based employee resource groups at YUM! BRANDS, INC.

Status
AGM passed
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
6
Resolution details
Company ticker
YUM
Lead filer
Bowyer Research
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Decent work
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders request the Board of Directors of Yum! Brands, Inc. conduct an evaluation and issue a 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 the risks related to religious discrimination against employees.
Whereas clause
Yum! Brands, Inc. is one of the largest companies in the United States and employs over 35,000 people. As a major employer, Yum! Brands should support the religious freedom of its employees. Yum! Brands is already required to comply with many laws prohibiting discrimination against employees based on their religious status and views.

Respecting diverse religious views allows Yum! Brands to attract the most qualified talent, promote a diverse and vibrant business culture, and is a key component to make sure it fully engages each of its employees. One of the best ways to promote religious diversity is through faith-based employee resource groups. ERGs allow like-minded employees to connect with one another, seek professional development, and promote understanding and dialogue with the broader workforce.

Despite this, the 2024 edition of the Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index1 found that over 64% of the largest tech and finance companies, as well as food companies like Yum! Brands, do not have faith-based employee resource groups and that only 5% have faith-specific ERGs. Yum! Brands2 does this even though the vast majority of Americans identify as religious, and even though the Company recognizes ERGs formed around race, gender identity, military status, and a variety of other criteria.3

According to the 2023 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.4 Yum! Brands needs to take proactive steps to address this shortcoming by promoting faith-based ERGs and providing them the same support and access that other ERGs enjoy.

Recent Supreme Court decisions in Groff v. DeJoy and Muldrow v. City of St. Louis have also clarified that religious protections for employees extend to all terms, conditions, and privileges of employment, not just monetary compensation. So failure to allow faith-based ERGs may be illegal.

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