- AT&T had reportedly cited a policy change from the SEC from November, which allowed companies on a "reasonable basis" to reject shareholder proposals.
- The petitioners of the lawsuit include the New York City Employees' Retirement System, as well as pension funds that represent police officers, teachers, and other education workers, as per the report.
- As per the complaint, AT&T’s move to block a shareholder vote at its 2026 annual meeting would cause “irreparable” harm.
AT&T Inc. (T) is reportedly facing lawsuits from four New York City public pension funds on the grounds of blocking shareholders from voting on a proposal to disclose its workforce composition.
According to a report from Reuters, a filing with the Manhattan federal court said that AT&T had refused the vote that would have required the company to reveal the race, ethnicity and gender composition of its 133,000-person workforce.
AT&T had reportedly cited a policy change from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from November, which allowed companies on a "reasonable basis" to reject shareholder proposals. The funds claimed that the SEC regulations were not an excuse for the telecommunications company to block the vote.
Shares of T were up 0.3% at the time of writing.
Sudden Discontinuation
The petitioners of the lawsuit include the New York City Employees' Retirement System, alongside pension funds that represent police officers, teachers, and other education workers, as per the report.
The plaintiffs allege that AT&T reports workforce diversity data with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and had disclosed this information publicly from 2021 to 2023. However, the company stopped this abruptly in 2024, without providing any explanation.
As per the complaint, AT&T’s move to block a shareholder vote at its 2026 annual meeting would cause “irreparable” harm and the lawsuit aims to stop the company from seeking proxy votes that could exclude their proposal.
The lawsuit comes amid multiple U.S. companies scaling back on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives following an executive order from President Donald Trump in 2025 that characterized them as discriminatory and against merit-based principles.
Recently, a Wall Street Journal report said that investment bank Goldman Sachs is planning to drop diversity-related criteria from board candidate assessments. Following the executive order release, multiple large tech firms, including Google, Meta, and Amazon scaled back on DEI programs.
How Did Stocktwits Users React?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around T shares remained in the ‘bearish’ territory over the past 24 hours amid ‘normal’ message volumes.
Shares of the company have climbed more than 10% in the past year.
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