A conservative public interest law firm announced this week that it was suing IBM for its race-based hiring practices that promised bonuses to executives who hired more blacks, Hispanics and women.
The America First Legal Foundation, founded by former Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller, sent a notice to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission calling for a probe of IBM for “individual or systemic discrimination” and for possible violations of the Civil Rights Act.
Federal law “prohibits IBM from discriminating against an employee or an applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” AFLF said in its letter. “However, the evidence is that IBM is knowingly, intentionally, and systematically engaging in such unlawful employment practices.”
The firm referred to a video released this week by conservative activist James O’Keefe.
In the video, from 2021, IBM CEO and board Chairman Arvind Krishna said, “We want to get to the representational demographics of the underlying population.”
He then outlined ratios for blacks, Hispanics and women, adding that he was “not trying to finesse this.”
Any execs who met the goals would see “a plus on your bonus,” while not doing so means “you lose part of your bonus.”
In its letter to the EEOC, AFLF noted of Krishna’s quotas that Paul Cormier, chairman of IBM’s subsidiary Red Hat, “admits employees who failed to meet or comply with the corporation’s unlawful racial and national origin quotas were terminated.”
EEOC action “is particularly appropriate here because there is ample reason to believe that IBM has knowingly and intentionally violated federal law and intends to continue doing so,” AFLF said.
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“Krishna, Cormier, and others in management have embedded immoral and unlawful employment practices into the corporation’s culture.”
“More broadly, IBM’s employment practices foment contention and resentment — they are ‘odious and destructive,’” the firm argued.
On Thursday, Breitbart News reported that Krishna tried to walk back his comments in the video.
“I think that people misconstrue what this means. It is not a target. So if any of you hear that there is a target, you can come to me. We do not want targets. I’m quite clear about that,” he said in a new video to IBM employees.
“Why? Let us look at it. It’s a 5 percent change. That means 95 percent of exec bonuses are driven by business performance. What drives business performance? Having the best people in the role!”
Furthermore, he said that IBM should be an “inclusive culture” and “lean in and make sure that all communities feel welcome.”
“We want to be inclusive, we want our employees to feel that they can bring their whole self to work. And that is the context. Everything else is a minor tool that helps that context,” Krishna said. “We do not believe we did anything illegal.”
Krishna also strongly suggested that IBM employees stay silent about the controversy.
“I have a thick skin, I’ll go deal with it. Our board is quite aware of what’s going on. Between the board, our shareholders, me. we’re going to deal with it. I would recommend all of you should not respond. Anything there just cause(s) more of a response. So I would highly recommend don’t feed this thing,” he said.
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