The agreement was announced Wednesday by Mark Levine, the New York City Comptroller, just over a week after the pension funds filed suit. The funds had sought to block AT&T from soliciting shareholder proxies that excluded their diversity-related proposal from consideration at the company’s 2026 annual meeting.
Under the settlement, AT&T will allow investors to vote on whether the company should publish a breakdown of its workforce by race, ethnicity and gender — information the pension funds argue is critical for assessing corporate accountability and equal opportunity efforts.
Dispute Over SEC Exclusion Rules
The legal clash emerged after AT&T moved to omit the proposal from its annual meeting ballot. Each year, hundreds of publicly traded companies request permission from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exclude shareholder proposals without facing enforcement action. Historically, companies have received approval roughly half the time.
The New York City Employees’ Retirement System, along with pension funds representing police officers, teachers and other education employees, contended that AT&T relied on a November policy shift by the SEC. That change allows companies to claim a “reasonable basis” for excluding certain shareholder proposals.
The funds argued that blocking the vote would undermine transparency at a time when investors increasingly seek standardized diversity data to evaluate long-term risk, workforce equity and governance practices.
Investors Claim Victory
Comptroller Levine described the settlement as a broader win for shareholder rights.
“Today’s settlement is a major win for investors amid ongoing attempts to undermine transparency and accountability,” Levine said in a statement. “AT&T shareholders will now have the responsibility to vote on our proposal that requests disclosure of clear and detailed data to help investors better assess its efforts to advance equal opportunity.”
AT&T, which is headquartered in Dallas, did not immediately respond to requests for comment after market hours.
Broader Political Context
The dispute unfolds against a shifting political backdrop. Since returning to office for a second term, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, prompting some companies to scale back or reframe related programs.
Supporters of disclosure measures argue that demographic transparency is a matter of investor oversight rather than politics, while critics contend that such proposals can impose reporting burdens or advance social agendas beyond core business concerns.
With the settlement in place, AT&T shareholders will ultimately determine whether the company must publicly release more granular workforce data — setting up a closely watched vote that could influence how other major corporations respond to similar demands.