US Labor Board accuses Apple of blocking pay discussions

The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is once again placing Apple under its scrutinizing eyes. It's accusing the company's management of illegally deterring employee discussions of pay and bias issues, part of an anti-union campaign by the Cupertino tech giant.

The NLRB general counsel said that Apple allegedly forced an engineer called Cher Scarlett to quit the company. Scarlett claims she faced pressure to leave after she attempted to post an online survey about pay and other Apple employee information.

The NLRB also alleges Apple is barring workers from creating a channel in the Slack app (workplace messaging app) to discuss pay inequities and performance incentives. Apple has rebutted the new complaint.

Apple said in a statement to Reuters that the company disagrees with the claims and will share the facts at the hearing.

Back in October, Apple was accused by the board of forcing employees to sign illegal contracts (those were said to be illegal confidentiality, non-compete, and non-disclosure agreements) and suppressing unionization efforts.

Apple has also been previously accused by employees of suppressing discrimination discussions on Slack or other social media platforms. Back in May, the NLRB found Apple to have illegally interrogated staff about union activities at the Apple World Trade Center store. Apple was also found to have restricted the distribution of union flyers.

Apple currently has two retail outlets that have unionized among its 274 US stores.

A hearing is going to be held next year on the latest charges. The hearing will reportedly be held by an administrative law judge. NLRB in itself cannot issue any punishments and cannot hold management accountable for violations.

In my opinion, things like these are pretty complex: when there are people involved, there are always multiple sides to the story. I would imagine working in a big company like Apple isn't easy and I would totally expect some strict policies. We'll see what the judge says on the matter next year.