Your commercial news round-up: diversity policies, Ben & Jerry’s, Santander, pay growth

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Several legal organisations have spoken out against the US government’s campaign targeting diversity and inclusion policies, and Ben & Jerry’s has accused its parent company of firing its CEO due to his progressive views. Meanwhile, Santander has announced 95 branch closures across the country and pay growth remains high, despite steady unemployment levels. Keep reading this week’s commercial news round-up to find out more.

• The Law Society and other national and international legal organisations have signed a joint statement calling on the US government to stop its campaign against diversity and inclusion policies at US law firms. Officials at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington wrote to 20 of the largest US law firms to say that their hiring and workplace policies are under investigation. A&O Shearman, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Hogan Lovells were all on the mailing list. In a statement, legal organisations urged the government to “immediately halt all acts of intimidation, hindrance or harassment of legal professionals and any improper interference with their work”. Chair of the City of London Law Society, Colin Passmore, said: “We view this as potentially serious and an issue on which the profession needs to unite and collectively respond.”
   
• Ben & Jerry’s has accused its parent group Unilever of dismissing its CEO for refusing to "see the dismantling" of the brand’s progressive values. The ice cream brand stated that Unilever wanted CEO David Stever to stop making political statements. When Ben & Jerry’s was bought by Unilever in 2000, it set up an independent board to protect the brand’s mission and stance on social issues as part of the merger. In November, the ice cream business launched legal action against its parent company and last month it accused Unilever of demanding that the brand stop publicly criticising Donald Trump. The chair of the independent board, Anuradha Mittal, stated that Unilever wanted to remove the board: “That is why the independent board has sued Unilever and why Unilever is seeking to punish the chief executive.” She added: “Dave has courageously advanced the company’s social mission and values, has continued to drive innovation in its super premium product range, and has delivered strong financial results, far outpacing the rest of Unilever’s ice cream business.”
   
• Santander has announced the closure of 95 branches across the UK, putting 750 jobs at risk. This is the most recent in a series of bank closures, with Lloyds announcing 136 closures in January. The move is due to "a rapid movement of customers choosing to do their banking digitally”. The bank said that services will be covered by 95 “community bankers” who will visit local communities on a weekly basis in facilities like libraries. Some MPs have criticised the flurry of bank closures, stating that they risk leaving people in rural areas “frozen out”.
   
• Pay growth remained high at 5.8% in the three months to January, putting pressure on the Bank of England not to cut the cost of borrowing next Thursday. While this is a slight fall in pay growth, it remained well above inflation. Pay growth has been above 4% for the past three years, which is the strongest run of pay growth since the Office for National Statistics started recording this measure in 2001. However, unemployment remained at 4.4%. The economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Suren Thiru, explained that falling business confidence has meant that the job market has had little momentum. He added: “Elevated wage growth is a double-edged sword for the economy because, while it’ll help boost consumer spending – a key driver of economic growth – it may limit the pace of interest rate cuts by fuelling fears over rising inflation.”

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