At Apple’s annual shareholder meeting, investors in the agency had more to consider than just how much money CEO Tim Cook and other executives stand to make last year the reimbursement for running a $2 trillion agency added up to nearly $99 million for Cook. Instead, certain shareholder proposals brought up issues with social and cultural impact, like addressing forced labor, pay equity, and employee NDAs. On Friday for the first time in years, two proposals actually passed.
Bloomberg reports shareholders opted to re-elect the same board of directors and approved the executive pay package outlined in the 2022 proxy statement. They also followed Apple’s recommendation in voting on eight of the ten shareholder proposals presented as noted in an SEC 8-K filing.
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One of the two measures passed was proposal number 10, which focused on non-disclosure agreements with support from Nia impact capital, the transparency in employment agreements coalition, and silenced no more co-sponsor Ifeoma Ozona. It pushed Apple to prepare a report on potential risks from its use of camouflage clauses in the context of harassment, discrimination, and other unlawful acts.
In response, Apple said it has added language to all disconnection agreements for US employees, unambiguously nothing that non-disclosure clauses do not prevent them from discussing harassment or discrimination. However not all Apple’s employees are in the US or California where the silenced no more act is now the law. The shareholders want the agency agreement where they argue it provides more legal protection than simply sitting in the business conduct policy. Preliminary voting announced during the call showed shareholders slightly favored approving the measure with 49.3% of votes in support VS 49.24% against it but as market watch notes the number of abstentions prevented it from meeting the threshold of fifty percent or more in favor at first.
