Apple Executives Including Tim Cook May Have Violated Workers' rights: National Labor Board

The National Labor Relations Board says that an email sent by Apple CEO Tim Cook to the entire company in 2021 might have been a violation of federal law.

Cook allegedly stated in the email that Apple didn't  "people who leak confidential information do not belong here" and that Apple didn't "tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it's product IP or the details of a confidential meeting."

The federal agency acknowledged to a media agency that it had reason to believe that allegations that high-level Apple executives' statements and corporate policies violated the National Labor Relations Act were true.

When an agency finds enough evidence to support a complaint after looking into it, it makes a merit ruling.

A few of Apple's corporate rules, according to the NLRB, "interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of their right to protected concerted activity,"  or the right to discuss work-related matters with coworkers.

A news agency claims that the federal agency's evaluation was prompted by complaints made by Cher Scarlett and Ashley Gjovik, two former Apple employees.

Gjovik asserted in an email to a media agency that Apple's NDAs, policies, and guidelines regarding confidentiality and speaking to the media"coercively silence Apple employees and chill them from engaging in protected activity through over-broad and vague terms, as well as through an implication of constant surveillance."

The agency quoted Scarlett as saying that "Apple's culture of secrecy encourages a toxic workplace that suppresses workers from organizing."  Scarlett had filed a second complaint with the NLRB.

If Apple doesn't first reach a settlement with the former employees who raised the concerns, the NLRB, a federal organisation that defends the rights of employees in the private sector, will pursue those allegations as a next step.