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

The National Labor Relations Board has withdrawn “many of the claims” it made against Apple in relation to the cases brought in 2021 by former employees Ashley Gjøvik and Cher Scarlett, according to Bloomberg. In particular, it dismissed an allegation that Apple CEO Tim Cook violated workers’ rights when he sent an all-staff email that year, which said “people who leak confidential information do not belong” in the company. Cook also said in the email that Apple was “doing everything in [its] power to identify those who leaked” information from an internal meeting the previous week, wherein management answered workers’ questions about pay equity and Texas’ anti-abortion law.

Apple didn’t “tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it’s product IP or the details of a confidential meeting,” Cook wrote. Gjøvik and Scarlett accused Apple of prohibiting wage discussion and preventing staff from talking to reporters. After an investigation, NLRB previously came to the conclusion that Cook’s email and Apple’s overall behavior were “interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights.”

In addition dropping its claim that Cook violated workers’ rights, the labor board is also withdrawing its allegation that the firing of activist Janneke Parrish, one of the leaders of the #AppleToo movement, broke the law. It’s dismissing its previous allegations that Apple broke the law by imposing confidentiality rules and surveilling workers or making them think they were under surveillance, as well.

Bloomberg says this is just one instance of the NLRB being more friendly to companies under President Trump. It’s not quite clear if the labor board has withdrawn all allegations against Apple related to the complaint or just some of them, but we’ve reached out for clarification.