With employee unrest brewing at Apple in late 2021, company CEO Tim Cook sent an email to employees reminding them that the world’s most valuable company will do everything in its power to “identify the leaker.”
The email speaks to the tech giant’s strictly enforced culture of secrecy, which has frustrated a group of former and current employees who collected records of abuse, harassment and discrimination at Apple. Two of the former employees complained about the company’s policies to the National Labor Relations Board.
More than a year later, the labor board found that Apple and its executives’ actions and policies that violated federal law prevented employees from banding together to advance their interests.
A spokesman for the labor commission said Tuesday that it found Apple’s work and confidentiality rules “interfere with, restrict or intimidate employees” from taking collective action. If the parties cannot resolve the case, the board will file a formal complaint against Apple and hold a hearing.
An Apple spokesman had no immediate comment.
The labor board’s findings come in response to five allegations made in late 2021 by two former Apple employees, Ashley Gjovik, an engineering program manager who spent six years at Apple, and Cher Scarlett, an engineer on the company’s security team. (To protect her anonymity, Ms. Scarlett said she legally changed her name in 2021.) Both women are involved in an activist group called #AppleToo, which is collecting reports of corporate abuse, harassment and retaliation. record of.
Activists for the #AppleToo initiative agree that the company’s strict culture of secrecy prevents employees from voicing concerns about issues at work to each other, their families, or the media. As a result, they say, questionable managers are left unchecked and the company’s business practices are rarely questioned.
In their claims to the labor board, former Apple employees accused the company of trying to prevent the organization from collecting employee wage data, including through harassment. They also said the company’s work rules did not allow them to discuss wages, hours and conditions of employment.
Ms Scarlett also complained to the Labor Council about Mr Cook’s emails to staff. Shortly after an all-hands meeting, Mr. Cook sent an email to employees warning that the company “does not condone leaking confidential information, whether it’s product intellectual property or details of a confidential meeting.” He said the leaker “does not belong” to Apple company.
During the Labor Board’s review, a regional office “found allegations that Apple’s statements and conduct, including senior executives, also violated national labor relations laws,” a spokeswoman for the labor board said.
Since then, Apple has faced challenges from employees, including the company’s return-to-office policy and efforts by retail workers to unionize.
