Top home furnishing retailer slapped with complaint over aggressive DEI hiring push

Furniture giant Williams-Sonoma has received a complaint about its aggressive policy to promote diversity in its workforce, which has resulted in an excessive number of women and minorities in its workforce.

The San Francisco-based company behind popular brands like West Elm and Pottery Barn has come under fire for its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts outlined in its 2024 annual report.

America First Legal (AFL), a conservative group, claims in a complaint to the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), stating that the company’s DEI hiring practices amount to “unlawful” discrimination.

“The toxic, divisive, and abusive DEI policies of woke corporations pose a clear and present danger to the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law,” said AFL attorney Reed Rubinstein, who is leading the complaint.

The $8 billion-a-year retail giant declined to respond to The Mail’s request for comment.

The San Francisco-based company is led by CEO Laura Alber, who has annual revenues of $24 million.

DEI is a frontline issue in America’s culture wars. Advocates say it helps more women and minorities get jobs and into college. Critics say it unfairly deprives others who might be better candidates.

Reed Rubinstein, an AFL attorney

According to the complaint, Williams-Sonoma uses applicants’ race, gender and national origin to determine whether to hire and promote candidates and to which outside companies to award contracts.

The company’s recent annual report touts that an aggressive DEI effort has resulted in 68 percent of the workforce being women, with 41 percent of those women coming from “ethnic minority” backgrounds.

The same goes for the company’s leadership, led by CEO Laura Alber, who earns $24 million a year. Fifty-seven percent of the board members are women, and 29 percent are considered “diverse.”

In other documents, the company says it is working to “increase Black representation within our company” and determine which suppliers should be awarded contracts.

While such statements may seem uncontroversial to many and are commonplace in the American business community, the AFL claims they are illegal, as it is never acceptable to award jobs and contracts based on skin color.

AFL also wrote a letter to the company’s board of directors, urging members to cease their DEI work. Disney and Target are among the growing list of companies that have faced an anti-DEI backlash from conservatives.

According to AFL, the DEI efforts are “legally suspect and highly controversial” and create “significant market and reputational risks.”

“Incantations of ‘inclusion and belonging’ do not absolve corporate boards of their fiduciary duty to comply with anti-discrimination laws,” Rubinstein said.

He criticized the company’s “left-wing managers” for their “peculiar and downright un-American political and social views.”

The EEOC, which enforces workplace discrimination laws, does not have to take action on complaints, as the number of complaints has increased significantly in recent years.

The AFL has filed complaints with the EEOC challenging workplace diversity programs at the NFL, Major League Baseball and dozens of companies, including Starbucks, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, Activision Blizzard and Kellogg.

Many companies that embraced DEI policies following the May 2020 killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd by a police officer later backed away from them for fear of angering conservative customers.

Williams-Sonoma is behind popular brands like West Elm

Pottery Barn and its various subdivisions are also operated by Williams-Sonoma

Since 2021, some companies have received letters from shareholders stating that their DEI policies amount to illegal discrimination and breach directors’ duties to investors.

Anti-DEI groups have been energized by the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling banning affirmative action in college admissions. The ruling has no direct impact on employers.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for US president, has been highly critical of DEI initiatives.

For some, DEI programs are important and necessary because they can help overcome historical racism and sexism and make it easier for people of all backgrounds to advance in education and the workforce.

Critics say it is a form of reverse discrimination that unfairly targets straight, white men and others.

Others say that while DEI programs are well-intentioned, they rarely deliver the desired results, and that mandatory workshops on “microaggressions” and “white fragility” often make matters worse by sowing divisions in offices and classrooms.

An Ipsos poll in April found that 61 percent of voters called DEI a “good thing.”

Yet a Gallup survey from the same period found that only 38 percent of people wanted companies to take a stand on current events, down 10 percentage points from 2022.