by Apple has been accused by the National Labor Relations Board of trying to prevent employees from talking about pay equity and pressuring an engineer who tried to distribute an online survey about wages to quit.
In a complaint filed last week by the NLRB’s regional office in Oakland, federal labor regulators alleged that Apple unlawfully blocked discussion among employees in company offices by enforcing overly broad confidentiality rules and restricting their activities on the Slack messaging app and social media, as well as hindering their conversations with journalists.
The complaint alleges that in 2021 the company banned employees from creating a Slack channel called #community-pay-equity and barred employees from discussing the financial incentives Apple uses to achieve sales goals by claiming the topic was “confidential and proprietary information’.
Apple has publicly denied the allegations. “We strongly disagree with these claims,” a company spokesperson told Reuters. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.
According to the complaint, Cher Scarlett, an engineer at Apple, faced retaliation after participating in Slack discussions about workplace discrimination and helping create a campaign called “Apple Too,” modeled after the #MeToo movement aimed at encouraging employees to share their experiences. with racism and sexism, and created an online employee survey on pay equity.
Instead of acceding to her requests for the company to clarify its rules regarding pay discussions, NLRB investigators found that Apple told an attorney representing Scarlett at the time that she should stop posting on social media while she also urged her to go on medical leave and offer her benefits. severance agreement. According to the complaint, these company actions unlawfully forced Scarlett to quit.
Apple managers allegedly threatened other employees who posted on social media and in Slack and spoke to the press about workplace concerns, according to the complaint. Some were questioned about their involvement in Scarlett’s pay equity investigation and were told their activities were being monitored and they could be demoted, according to the complaint.
The filing of the complaint is the NLRB’s first step in litigating the case, after it investigates an unfair labor practice claim filed by employees and finds the allegations substantiated. If no settlement is reached with Apple, the case will be reviewed by an administrative judge at a hearing scheduled for June next year. The judge’s decision on what, if anything, Apple should do to address the issues raised in the complaint can then be appealed to the labor board in Washington and from there can be appealed to federal court.
The NLRB’s general counsel asks for a court order requiring Apple to post notices in offices and electronically in Slack and email explaining employee rights, and to provide training to managers, supervisors and employees. The NLRB also wants to force Apple to reinstate Scarlett, compensate her for lost wages and send an apology letter.
The complaint is the third to affect Apple in recent weeks.
On September 27, the board’s regional office in Los Angeles filed a complaint accusing Apple of requiring employees across the U.S. to sign overly broad confidentiality and non-compete agreements and adhere to sweeping misconduct and misconduct policies social media that violates the ability of employees to conduct their activities. their rights under federal labor law. The complaint stems from charges filed in 2021 by Ashley Gjovik, a former senior engineering manager at the company, who alleged that an email from Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook promising to punish employees who leaked company information created a chilling had an effect. about employees’ discussions about pay equality and discrimination.
And on October 9, the NLRB office in Oakland filed another complaint alleging that the company had enforced unlawful work rules and created the appearance of surveillance, unfairly enforced policies and wrongfully terminated an employee due to their involvement in an open letter criticizing a tech entrepreneur Apple hired. The complaint stemmed from claims made by Janneke Parrish, a former Texas product manager for Apple Maps and leader of a #MeToo activist movement within Apple, who was fired in 2021.
The complaints from federal regulators highlight the ongoing unrest surrounding the organization of Apple employees’ efforts, both at the iPhone maker’s headquarters and in its stores. In recent years, the board also filed complaints that Apple had interrogated its New York store workers about their union support and confiscated pro-labor flyers in a store cafeteria, and similarly interrogated workers at an Atlanta store and told staff that they would get into trouble. would be in a less advantageous position if they voted for a union.
The company has denied wrongdoing.
