Labor / Employment

I Know A Good Apple Is Tart, But Exploitation Is Bitter

And on the eighth day, God said, 'Let their jobs suck.'

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rotten appleFor many of us, apples represent not just knowledge, but a forbidden flavor of it that leads to ruin. Maybe the company did a bit of soothsaying when they chose it to represent them, considering that an employee, Ashley Gjovik, recently whistleblew about the company’s invasive surveillance practices and — get this — toxic work environment?

Gjovik also alleged that the company violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by retaliating against her for voicing concerns about workplace safety stemming from the fact that Apple’s office building in Sunnyvale, California, is situated on top of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund site, an area contaminated by hazardous industrial waste that is supposed to have been cleaned up and contained if humans are in the vicinity. If Gjovik prevails, the NLRB could issue a ruling curtailing employers’ abilities to surveil workers and chill their speech.

Gjovik has filed numerous other complaints with several environmental and workplace safety regulators, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and has been meticulous in documenting her experience, as demonstrated by her personal website.

Dear Lord, I miss the days when describing your work environment as toxic was a shorthand for nosy cubicle mates. If a major global company is able to get away with building their offices on a superfund site, in California of all places, what does that mean for the rest of us? And even if the co-workers are pleasant and the Apple headquarters frequently restocks on their K-Cups, I doubt that their insurance coverage would make up for having a 9-5 atop pollutants.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Apple is in hot water for spying on its employees given that they’ve been accused of spying on their customers too.

But let’s not forget the first prong of her complaint, regarding Apple spying on its employees.

Gjovik cited the company’s handbook, which reserves the right to search employees’ work equipment and their personal devices “to protect Apple confidential and sensitive information.” The company defines its proprietary information to include “compensation, training, recruiting, and other human resource information.”

Under federal labor law, all employees have the right to discuss their working conditions “for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” The NLRB has ruled that management cannot spy on employees exercising their rights.

Of course this is horrible in the facially-illegal-part-of-the-employee-handbook way, but let’s be realistic here. Apple employs a lot of people in California. Imagine being the unlucky guy (or gal, we’re egalitarian here) who gets their search history leaked after a suspected leak of details on the iPhone 36. Would I want that gossip? Yes, but I wouldn’t want that happening to me. Everyone worth their weight in legal salt knows that First Amendment restrictions on speech don’t really apply to private corporations, but things like this make me wish that the Fourth Amendment did.

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Apple Employee Blows Whistle on Illegal Spying and Toxic Working Conditions [Truthout]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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