US labor board drops allegation that Apple’s CEO violated staff’ rights

The Nationwide Labor Relations Board has withdrawn “lots of the claims” it made in opposition to Apple in relation to the cases brought in 2021 by former staff Ashley Gjøvik and Cher Scarlett, in line with Bloomberg. Particularly, it dismissed an allegation that Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner violated employees’ rights when he despatched an all-staff e-mail that 12 months, which stated “individuals who leak confidential info don’t belong” within the firm. Cook dinner additionally stated within the e-mail that Apple was “doing every thing in [its] energy to determine those that leaked” info from an inner assembly the earlier week, whereby administration answered employees’ questions on pay fairness and Texas’ anti-abortion regulation.

Apple did not “tolerate disclosures of confidential info, whether or not it’s product IP or the main points of a confidential assembly,” Cook dinner wrote. Gjøvik and Scarlett accused Apple of prohibiting wage dialogue and stopping employees from speaking to reporters. After an investigation, NLRB beforehand got here to the conclusion that Cook dinner’s e-mail and Apple’s general habits had been “interfering with, restraining and coercing staff within the train of their rights.”

As well as dropping its declare that Cook dinner violated employees’ rights, the labor board can be withdrawing its allegation that the firing of activist Janneke Parrish, one of many leaders of the #AppleToo motion, broke the regulation. It is dismissing its earlier allegations that Apple broke the regulation by imposing confidentiality guidelines and surveilling employees or making them suppose they had been beneath surveillance, as properly.

Bloomberg says this is only one occasion of the NLRB being extra pleasant to firms beneath President Trump. It isn’t fairly clear if the labor board has withdrawn all allegations in opposition to Apple associated to the criticism or simply a few of them, however we have reached out for clarification.