The National Labor Relations Board has accused Apple of violating the rights of its employees to advocate for better working conditions. a complaint noted by Reutersthe agency alleges that Apple illegally fired an employee who used Slack to advocate for a job change at the company. The NLRB also accused Apple of forcing another employee to delete a social media post.
The case stems from a 2021 complaint #AppleToo organizer Janneke Parrish. In October of that year, Apple fired Parrish for sharing confidential information, a he claims to deny. According to the complaint, Parrish used Slack and public social media posts to advocate for permanent remote work.
She has also shared open letters criticizing the tech giant, released a salary survey and talked about gender and racial discrimination at Apple. According to the labor board, Apple’s policies prohibit employees from creating Slack channels without first getting permission from a manager. Instead, employees should direct their workplace concerns to either management or the company’s maintained People Support team. An example of the type of concern some employees use Slack to voice can be seen in a 2021 tweets from Former Apple employee Ashley Gjøvik.
“We expect Apple to be held accountable in court for implementing illegal rules and firing employees for engaging in substantively protected activity related to workplace sex discrimination and other civil rights violations,” Parrish’s attorney, Laurie Burgess, said in a statement. Reuters.
Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment.
A preliminary hearing with an administrative judge is scheduled for February, unless Apple disagrees with the agency. The NLRB wants to compel the company to change its policy and compensate Parrish for the financial hardship he suffered as a result of his firing. last week, The NLRB sued Apple forcing employees to sign illegal and overly broad confidentiality, non-disclosure, and non-compete agreements.
