What you need to know
- Janneke Parrish has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Apple.
- Parrish says that the company fired her in retaliation for helping to organize the movement.
- It is the seventh lawsuit that has been filed since August.
Another #AppleToo organizer is taking the company to court.
As reported by The Verge, Janneke Parrish says that she was fired by the company as retaliation for her helping to organize the internal movement. Apple had fired Parrish back in October for deleting apps from her phone during an internal investigation into her claims.
Parrish says the company terminated her based on "false and pretextual reasons" — namely because she "spoke up regarding her personal experiences regarding workplace concerns and helped give voice to her co-workers' concerns in a workplace where such issues have been systematically siloed, suppressed, and unaddressed."
Laurie Burgess, Parrish's attorney, says that many of the technology companies are exhibiting the same behavior to stifle internal organization.
"It seems like all the tech companies are using the same playbook. They get rid of outspoken organizers by asserting they are responsible for a leak without any proof or documentation that that person was indeed responsible. My client denies having leaked this information." Burgess is also representing the fired and suspended Netflix organizers, as well as prominent Google organizers.
A group of Apple employees initially launched the #AppleToo movement in August. The movement, which Parrish helped to put together, gathered stories from current and former employees who had issues with sexism, racism, and other abuse in the workplace. The group has so far received hundreds of responses from employees with wide-ranging stories.
Apple did not respond to a request from The Verge when they reached out for a comment.
