By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway on Saturday joined a growing list of American companies to publicly change their approach to discussing their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Berkshire’s annual report includes a section describing how the conglomerate’s 189 operating businesses, which employ about 392,400 people, depend on human capital and resources, and that each establishes practices to attract and retain employees.
Last year’s report said the businesses accomplished this in part through hiring practices “intended to identify qualified candidates and promote diversity and inclusion in the workforce.”
This year’s report omitted the discussion of diversity and inclusion, ending that passage after “candidates.”
Buffett’s assistant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Berkshire has long said its decentralized structure allows individual operating businesses to make their own day-to-day operating decisions without interference from the top.
The company joined dozens of major U.S. companies including Amazon.com, Boeing, Citigroup, Ford, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley and Walmart in curbing public support or initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Such initiatives have been attacked by many conservatives including U.S. President Donald Trump, who has tried to eliminate DEI from the federal government.
At Berkshire’s annual meeting last May, shareholders voted down by a nearly 4-1 margin a proposal that Berkshire disclose more about its efforts to promote DEI in the workplace.
Berkshire’s board of directors opposed the proposal.
Buffett has run Berkshire since 1965. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company owns Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad, and an array of energy, industrial, retail and service businesses.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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