Apple employees demand change in internal company practices in open letter

Apple, as an employer and entrepreneur, is unfortunately no stranger to various labor, legal and ethical issues. This has generally been the case over the years, with various issues being brought to light more or less in waves. Certainly, when you scale the Cupertino giant, problems somewhere in the massive corporate machine are inevitable. However, what members of the #AppleToo movement have started to put forward goes well beyond isolated or even individual cases of work-related issues themselves and accuses Apple’s internal practices of creating a very unpleasant for incidents.

Before we get into things, we have to start by saying that we are in no way affiliated with any of the parties involved, and we cannot verify any of the claims. Some of the things featured in the open letter, recently posted by #AppleToo, however, caught our attention and we believe are worth investigating. You can read it all here for yourself. The claims he makes are as follows:

• 1. Increased separation between digital and physical assets owned by Apple and those owned by workers in all Apple policies.
• 2. Provide transparent, livable, fair and just compensation across Apple.
• 3. Audit all relationships with third parties.
• 4. Hold the staff team, employee relations, business conduct and management accountable.
• 5. Provide a process for group concerns to be heard with a transparent feedback loop.

Some of the points, especially those dealing with fair compensation, are admittedly a bit vague and unfortunately insurmountable to be addressed by a few paragraphs in an open letter anyway. However, most of the other points all seem to revolve around an alleged faulty and improperly configured internal reporting system at Apple, combined with the potential misuse of employee personal data, which undermines the sense of security and trust in the place. of work. To quote the letter itself:

The workers have had a lot of hindsight in trying to voice the concerns of the group outside of what is selected for town hall Q&A within various organizations. This has left many people unsure of who to trust and who to turn to for help on concerted concerns shared by multiple workers for which there is no activity or specific people to report. through individual channels, such as our PBP or our managers.

So, in layman’s terms, the allegation here is that Apple’s internal reporting structures are not working properly. And according to #AppleToo, these aren’t isolated events either.

Hundreds of us have documented our stories of abuse, discrimination and harassment. Hundreds of us documented the reporting of our stories through internal channels and received no relief.

And judging from other parts of the letter, some of the complaints themselves relate to very serious issues.

We call for an impartial third-party audit of Apple’s hierarchical structure, human and social relations teams, business conduct and all management. We want a thorough re-examination of all reports and findings of racism, discrimination, abuse, harassment, suppression of concerted activities and retaliation as a result of this audit.

Then there’s the added layer of uncertainty and the potential misuse of employee personal information that would take place at Apple.

Apple’s privacy and device linking policies also ensure that when we seek redress, we risk invading our privacy. When we seek leave or accommodation through Apple’s mental and physical health partners, we are asked to disclose high-profile personal health information to Apple and one of Apple’s agents. for an aggregate period of two years. Apple prides itself on its privacy policies, but it feels that as workers our privacy is not a concern.

The letter also discusses more practical aspects and details on this privacy point.

Apple employees are aggressively “encouraged” to sync their personal iClouds with their devices. This has led to the personal data of many workers being able to be searched by Apple, in accordance with their policies… An iCloud account using corporate email accounts should be provided to keep workers’ personal data private for those who wish to do so. remove from iCloud @ Apple. For workers who wish to register, policies should make it clear that workers have the right to privacy with anything outside of the Apple Work folder… Workers who need devices should have a dedicated number and be allowed to use a personal device unrelated to Apple’s corporate ecosystem. , including not posting personal phone numbers in the Apple Directory. Employees have been harassed over their personal phone numbers because of this policy.

Regarding the potential misuse of personal information by third parties, the letter explicitly mentions two companies – Sedgwick and NAVEX Global, which potentially have access to employee data and already have a long history of complaints and lawsuits against them. for misuse.

All in all a pretty serious set of complaints that paint an almost toxic work environment. Again, we can’t speak to the authenticity of any of the claims, but the #AppleToo movement appears to be gaining momentum online. Hoping that all of this leads to some positive result.

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