AppleInsider Staff
Apple has reportedly stopped attempts to create an internal Slack channel dedicated to the discussion of pay equity, with the measure coming as employees begin to organize around a number of claimed workplace issues.
According to a Tuesday report from The Verge, Apple barred workers from creating and joining a Slack channel to discuss pay equity, saying that doing so would violate company policy.
"Slack channels are provided to conduct Apple business and must advance the work, deliverables, or mission of Apple departments and teams," an employee relations representative told employees, according to the report.
Apple's Slack regulations say that "channels for activities and hobbies not recognized as Apple Employee clubs or Diversity Network Associations (DNAs) aren't permitted and shouldn't be created," the report said. Pay equity is apparently not among Apple's set of cleared topics for discussion, and reports in August claimed management squashed at least three employee-run surveys on the topic.
The Verge notes other in-office Apple channels — #fun-dogs, #gaming and #dad-jokes — do not seem to meet the criteria outlined in the company's policy, but they remain accessible with thousands of active members.
"It sure is very convenient for Apple that these Terms of Use that they wrote are extremely useful for crushing free and open communication among employees," a source told the publication.
Apple's handling of internal Slack communications was previously scrutinized in July, when the company was reportedly mulling a crackdown on a channel that hosted a discussion on remote work issues. Boasting some 6,000 members, the channel was still up late last month, but its current status is unknown.
In addition to internal pushback over pay equity, Apple faces growing discontent from employees who claim the tech giant brushes workplace issues like harassment, discrimination and retaliation under the rug. An effort to surface those allegations, dubbed #AppleToo, launched earlier this month with help from both current and past employees.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
15 Comments
Apple, the bastion of the left. Except when the leftist agenda starts interfering with those dirty, right-wing concepts such as profit.
Many of these ‘woke’ ideas come from a naive view of the world. Many of us feel so entitled due to the immense successes of Western ideas.
I’d say to let them have at it and then ruin Apple so that they can see for themselves their folly. But the reality is that these ideas have already been tried for many centuries and have failed every single time and people still don’t see. They just don’t want to see, because they’re so in love with their failed ideas that truth is irrelevant to them. It’s like the person who falls in love with someone bad for them and refuses to see the truth of it.
There are many issues regarding salaries that such issues don’t take into account. For one, the quality of workers has diminished considerably over the last two decade. The real way to handle such HR nightmares is to throw caution to the wind and have those who want to discuss these things publicly sign a release and have public performance reviews with comparisons to other employees with specific points of contention.
And meanwhile Steve Cook just cashed out $750 MILLION in stock. Nothing to see here folks. Move along folks. Pay is perfectly equitable at Apple. Capitalism is great when you are at the top of the food chain.