Shareholders' Prosecution Of Nike Management Has Been Rejected, But Discriminatory Charges Are Far From Over.

Recently, Nike has achieved a temporary victory in the company's internal personnel disputes which have lasted for a long time.

In August 2018, three Nike shareholders sued Nike founder Phil Nate, CEO Mark Parker and Nike brand former president Trevor Edwards and the board of directors of the company, accusing them of "deliberately ignoring the harm caused by hostile working environment and possibly further damaging the interests and financial situation of the company".

This lawsuit includes accusation of negligence on the issue of sexual harassment and gender discrimination by Nike, as well as the lack of attention to the company's anonymous reporting of complaints.

In response to this case, the Oregon circuit court recently dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the plaintiff lacked substantial evidence. "The plaintiff did not prove that the directors consciously ignored this behavior".

However, if the case is dismissed is not equivalent to winning the case, the plaintiff can continue to appeal.

In response to the ruling, Gustavo Brookner, a plaintiff lawyer, told Footwear News that the team had planned to initiate a new lawsuit and to revise and improve the relevant documents in order to provide more evidence to the court to show dozens of complaints against Nike management since last August.

"We must not let evil doers wait for rewards, but let some talented executives, especially female executives, suffer," Gustavo Brookner said.

The background of the prosecution case can be traced back to 2017. Some Nike women employees launched a private investigation into the internal management of the company to collect allegations about the absence of fair pay for men and women.

In early 2018, the report was pmitted to Nike CEO Mark Parker.

Nike immediately launched a large internal investigation, and at least 11 executives were dismissed, including Trevor Edwards, the Nike brand president regarded as CEO successor.

The Wall Street journal further revealed the company's gender discrimination, improper personnel management and the prevalence of patriarchal culture.

Previous data show that although the proportion of men and women in the world is equal to that of Nike employees, only 29% of the company's hundreds of vice presidents are women.

In the US headquarters, only 16% of the vice presidents are non white.

At the same time, in the Nike UK branch, the wholesale and retail sector's men's incomes were 10% and 3% higher than that of women, respectively.

After the report was released, Monique Matheson, director of human resources of Nike, publicly acknowledged the shortcomings of the company's personnel management, especially "no progress" in recruiting and promoting more women and minorities.

In May 2018, at the staff meeting, Mark Parker made a public apology for internal problems.

Not long after, the company announced that it would raise salaries for more than 7000 employees and improve its salary and welfare plans, while promising to promote more female executives.

However, a series of measures did not calm Nike's troubles. Besides the complaints of three shareholders, the company received more formal charges.

In August 2018, two former female employees sued the company for gender discrimination and violated the equal pay for equal work act.

Kelly Cahill, an analyst at the former communications department and analyst Sarah Johnston, said the company paid less than the male colleagues for the same work, and ignored women in the promotion of personnel. At least five female employees joined the lawsuit.

In October 2018, Cecily Schmidt, a former footwear developer and female employee of Nike, accused the company of causing racial and gender discrimination, hostile working conditions, violating the family and medical leave law, and disclosed a lot of details, claiming that Nike's sexual harassment atmosphere had lasted for a long time and failed to solve the problem effectively.

In March, the latest allegation came from Ahmad Inam, the former head of Nike's data analysis department.

He said he was racially discriminated in the company, and colored employees were regarded as "two class citizens" for a long time, so they could not receive reasonable remuneration and promotion.

At present, Nike does not comment on such cases, emphasizing only that "the company opposes any form of discrimination and is committed to diversity and inclusiveness for a long time".

It has been a year since the March 2018 internal events were public.

Now, although Nike has dismissed a charge, it is unlikely that this human disturbance will end easily.