Here Is Why Apple Employees Are Not Happy With CEO Tim Cook

A group of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) employees on Friday wrote an open letter to CEO Tim Cook and the rest of the management of the company complaining that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for workers.

What Happened: The letter was published on the website #AppleToo, which Apple employees formed in August. 

The letter says workers are “aggressively encouraged to sync their personal iClouds to their devices,” allowing Apple to be able to search “many workers’ personal data.” This is something Apple employees are not happy about. 

The company, according to the letter, “denies all workers the benefit of the doubt, and a sense of safety and trust in the workplace.”

In another demand, employees are asking the company to “provide transparent livable, equitable, and fair compensation across all of Apple.” The workers want Apple to “provide a transparent feedback loop into how these issues will be addressed long-term within the scope of Inclusion & Diversity.”

The employees declared that “Apple contract workers often feel like second-class citizens, and are afforded fewer worker protections than full-time, salaried workers.” 

The letter called for “more in-depth supplier responsibility reports, especially for agencies in administrative and corporate roles, and that Apple ensures all contract providers are paying above the living wage calculated for their geographic location, and providing benefits such as healthcare, paid leave, and other wellness benefits designed to ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of all workers.”

The employees want Cook and Apple to “do the right thing” by creating a work environment “where everyone feels safe and welcome and has the promise of equal opportunity and treatment.” 

The letter also said, “Hundreds of us have documented our stories of abuse, discrimination, and harassment. In addition, hundreds of us have documented reporting our stories through internal channels and receiving no relief. In sharing our stories, we are calling attention to our experiences working at Apple and how much better we can do.”

Last month the employees wrote in the forum, “When we press for accountability and redress to the persistent injustices we witness or experience in our workplace, we are faced with a pattern of isolation, degradation, and gaslighting.” 

#AppleToo organizer Cher Scarlett published the stories on Medium, first noted on Apple Insider. The tech giant has not responded to a request for comment.

Related Link: Here Is What Apple CEO Tim Cook Plans To Do Before Stepping Down

Why It Matters: According to Apple employees, the forum and website were created after they “exhausted all internal avenues.” Last month an Apple senior engineer said she had been placed on indefinite administrative leave after raising concerns about sexism.

Apple has been pushing its employees to return to their desks for three days a week, and that was supposed to take place in September; however, the raging Delta variant of COVID-19 has pushed it back until 2022.

In July, employees at Activision carried out a walkout in protest of the company’s response to a lawsuit charging it with creating a hostile workplace.