Candy Maker Mars Target of EEOC Challenge Over Hiring Practices

[Webster]

American Family News: Candy maker Mars latest target of EEOC complaint

A law firm is accusing candy maker Mars, Inc. of violating federal law with its diversity-driven hiring goals and internal promotions for women and minorities, and the attorneys who filed a complaint claim the evidence is right in front for all to see.

America First Legal Foundation this week filed a six-page complaint with the Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, alleging the U.S.-based corporation is violating the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964. Several pages of the complaint are lifted directly from the corporation’s website itself, such as pledge to “continue progressing against our gender-balanced leadership team target and increase representation in our talent.”

That pledge goes on to announce Mars is introducing “diverse interview panels and candidate slates,” and a review of leadership development programs to focus more on “inclusion and diversity.”

James Rogers, senior counsel at America First, alleges those openly-stated plans and goals are illegal hiring “quotas” that violate Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act. That law prohibits an employer from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. “Mars,” he tells AFN, “is publicly bragging about how they are doing just exactly that."

AFN reached out for comment from Mars for this story but did not hear back by press time.

Beginning with an EEOC complaint against Starbucks last fall, when that far-left corporation vowed to hire and promote more minorities, America First is waging a legal battle against McDonald’s, Hershey Company, BlackRock, Anheuser-Busch, and Wrangler jeans maker Kontoor Brands on the same grounds. It’s up in the air if the EEOC is willing to investigate and punish any of those powerful corporations, but America First insists all of them are openly bragging about hiring and promoting employers based on skin color and sex.

In the case of Mars, Rogers says the corporation brags it has hired and promoted minorities until they represent 40% of corporate management. "They talk about how they've achieved a 5% increase already,” the attorney alleges, “and how one out of every two new hires in the United States are minorities."

The entire workforce of the Virginia-based corporation is approximately 140,000 workers worldwide. Mars ended 2022 with sales of approximately $45 billion. “So it’s a big deal,” Rogers insists, “when a company that big decides to start discriminating based on race and feels such impunity that it can brag about it in open public statements."