Apple has banned its employees from taking informal polls and recently closed three polls. The polls looked at the income of people, especially women and underrepresented minorities. However, the company has put an end to these surveys, citing strict rules on how employees can collect data.
Several labor attorneys told The Verge that Apple could violate worker protection under US law. US law gives employees the right to discuss compensation. Investigations in the United States can be viewed as a form of work organization.
In the first survey, people were asked to share information about their wages, how they identify with their race, ethnicity, gender and disability. Almost 100 responses were recorded. Apple’s staff team had insisted that this investigation be closed, saying demographic questions fell under Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
The second pay equity survey created last week was closed again because it included a question on gender. The third survey created did not mention any gender questions, but was again closed because it was hosted on the company’s Box account.
The People team, commonly known as human resources, had sent an information pack on “prohibitive surveys”. The information had detailed surveys that cannot be conducted, such as data collection and health information. Information says
All requests for identifiable employee data should be submitted to the People team through the People Report Request Form.
The move prompted Cher Scarlett, an engineer working with Apple, to investigate Typeform again. In her tweet, she said she was paying out of pocket and had already collected 500 entries.
His poll said, “We want our colleagues and industry peers to know Apple’s pay scales and give minority and potential employees the confidence to negotiate fair wages and bonuses.
Two pay transparency surveys have been closed in the past 6 months at Apple. I won’t be intimidated. We have the right to collect this data between us. There is a new investigation, voluntary and completely anonymous. The password is my status in Slack.https: //t.co/fUr1DZ5Df1
– Dear Scarlett (@cherthedev) August 7, 2021
Apple has always been in the dock when it comes to pay equity. Apple CEO Tim Cook at an investor meeting two years ago said women at Apple earn 99.6 cents for every dollar earned by men, while under-represented minorities earned 99.7 cents for every dollar earned by white employees.
A report released later in the year said the issues had been resolved.
In the UK, Apple’s average and median pay gap for employees was 12% in favor of men, 5 percentage points lower than the overall gender pay gap in the UK. UK law requires companies to publish this data, unlike the United States.
(Edited by : Shoma bhattacharjee)
