• The NLRB filed a complaint against Apple, alleging labor law violations and retaliation.
• Cher Scarlett, a former Apple engineer, filed a lawsuit after saying she was at risk of retaliation.

The National Labor Relations Board filed an unfair labor practice complaint Nov. 1 complaint alleging Apple violated federal labor law and retaliated against employees who discussed their pay and working conditions.

The indictor in the case, Cher Scarlett, is a former software engineer on Apple’s security team. She was a prominent organizer of the #AppleToo movement that helped launch an anonymous investigation and a website for Apple employees to share stories about pay disparities and harassment.

Scarlett said she left Apple in November 2021 after facing retaliation for organizing a pay survey and intimidation for her unionizing efforts. She added that employees were not part of a union and were not allowed to collectively present the results of their findings to HR. He was also asked to take sick leave and offered severance pay.

“I’m not saying everyone should share their salary, but the fact is it’s a personal decision as to what you want to share. It’s not a business decision,” Scarlett told Business Insider.

Scarlett filed the first of her three charges against the company with the NLRB in September 2021.

The new complaint, which consolidates its three accusations, constitutes the first step in the board’s litigation process after it investigated and found merit in the accusations of unfair labor practices. If the two sides cannot reach a settlement, a hearing will be held in June in Oakland.

According to the consolidated copy of the complaint reviewed by BI, the NLRB found that Apple created a culture of surveillance by telling employees not to speak to the press or post online on social media about pay disparities. The board also said the company selectively enforced bans on creating Slack channels to discuss working conditions.

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects workers, even if they are not unionized, from participating in concerted activities “for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”

The NLRB found in the complaint that Apple maintained an overly broad privacy rule and “constructively” terminated Scarlett by making her continued employment contingent on ceasing such Section 7 activities.

The complaint included remedies, such as requiring Apple to post an official notice in its offices and electronically explain the rights granted by the National Labor Relations Act and requiring managers and employees to receive training from the NLRB regarding their rights as workers. If an order is issued, Apple must change its rules so as not to interfere with employees’ Section 7 organizing rights.

The NLRB General Counsel is also seeking an order reinstating Scarlett in her former position, compensating her for financial losses incurred as a result of the illegal termination, and providing a neutral employment reference. Scarlett told BI that Apple and the NLRB have discussed a possible settlement and those talks have not yet come to fruition.

The NLRB declined to comment. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

A culture of silence

Scarlett’s case joins other ongoing unfair labor practice complaints filed by former Apple employees.

The NLRB filed complaints last month in two other cases, alleging that Apple required employees across the country to sign. illegal confidentialitynon-disclosure and non-competition. The board also stated that the company restricted employee use of social media and Slack to advocate for better working conditions. These cases will be heard by an NLRB administrative law judge in Oakland next February.

Although Apple told the SEC that its policy was not to use strict nondisclosure clauses following allegations of harassment or discrimination, Scarlett showed that was not true when she manifested to BI in 2021 and broke his NDA.

In 2021, Scarlett filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC for what she described as Apple’s “false or misleading statements” to the agency. Soon after, under pressure from activist investors, Apple agreed to “make improvements and clarifications” to the use of NDAs and said it would not enforce agreements like Scarlett’s.

In California, where many Apple employees are based, the adoption of laws such as Silencing nothing prohibits companies from preventing employees from denouncing discrimination and harassment.

“Decades later, the same things that women in Silicon Valley were fighting for, recognition, pay parity and not being sexually harassed and everything, they’re still fighting for today,” Scarlett said .

Many Silicon Valley tech workers said companies were forcing them to sign strict non-disclosure agreements which create a culture of silence and prevent workers from discussing working conditions such as pay disparities. The culture of preventing workers from speaking out about pay disparities particularly affects women.

THE #AppleToo The survey, which Scarlett said received nearly 4,000 responses from 147,000 employees, showed that women were paid 6% less than men in 2020.

Evan Starr, an assistant professor of management at the University of Maryland, said companies don’t want workers to discuss wages “because they don’t necessarily want workers to be unionized and they don’t necessarily want having to respond to coordinated salary demands. among the workers. »

The Future of Organizing in Silicon Valley

The NLRB has received an uptick in unfair labor practice complaints from tech workers. The employees of Microsoft, Google, Amazonand The New York Times have pushed for unions to work to address working conditions.

“When we talk about labor law, we’re really talking about unions and hourly work, like retail, frontline and service workers,” Scarlett said. “Tying this to workers at companies, especially high-level software engineers who have been there for a long time, really shows that workplace issues aren’t just issues that every single person faces every hour. It goes beyond that .It’s the tech workers. It’s everyone you know who is the worker.”

Scarlett and other employees created #AppleToo, modeled after #MeToo movementto encourage more workers to share stories about incidents of discrimination, inequity, sexism and racism at Apple. Movements like #AppleToo reflect greater pressure from tech workers, who expect more transparency from employers.

“I think technology is at an interesting crossroads,” said Matthew Bodie, an employment law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. “People are looking ahead to their careers. They’re not necessarily looking to spend their entire career in one place, especially when you have employees who have more power than the organization, such as a software engineer who could be valuable to other companies. no one is going to want to have a say.

Scarlett said it was difficult to find a job after becoming a whistleblower, despite having more than 20 years of experience as a developer at places like Webflow, USA Today and Activision Blizzard. Last year, the NLRB filed a complaint against Mozilla for refusing to hire him. Scarlett said tech workers could fear being blacklisted if they come forward as whistleblowers.

Despite these challenges, Scarlett hopes to move forward. She said she wouldn’t stop being a union activist just to get a job.

Scarlett added that this work “gives the next people facing these issues the power to hold Apple and other Silicon Valley companies accountable.”