The following is a statement by Sister Barbara Aires, Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth, NJ and an Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) member regarding Wal-Mart’s report on its EEO data: “Wal-Mart today placed its entire EEO-1 report on walmart.com, setting a new standard in corporate transparency not only for retailers but for all Fortune 500 companies.
“In publicly disclosing how women and people of color advance within the company and what opportunities they have, the impetus for continued progress in this area becomes more tangible. As the largest publicly traded company in the US with the nation’s largest workforce, Wal-Mart today raises the bar for all companies, both privately and publicly held.
“Religious investors with Wal-Mart holdings have worked tirelessly with Wal-Mart’s management to disclose and improve its policies for recruiting, training and mentoring throughout the company’s various divisions and management levels. We have also requested this report through shareholder resolutions that have garnered increasing support over the past four years.
“Our work does not end with this report, however. Although we may drop this resolution, we will continue our dialogue with management on shaping human resources policies that set new standards for openness and opportunity.”
A white paper on ICCR’s involvement with Wal-Mart can be found at this website. Wal-Mart’s EEO-1 report can be found at this website.
About ICCR: The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is a 35- year-old international coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors including denominations, religious communities, pension funds, healthcare corporations, foundations and dioceses with combined portfolios worth an estimated $110 billion. ICCR seeks to build a more just and sustainable society by integrating social values into corporate and investor decisions. ICCR is one of the foremost shareholder advocacy organizations in the world. More detailed information about shareholder resolutions is available from ICCR’s Ethvest (sm), the comprehensive, on-line, subscription-based, ethical investor database, located here.
