A judge has ruled that “there were no reasonable grounds” for Apple to fire an employee for taking secret photos of a female colleague. This is the second time in a month that a UK judge has criticized Apple’s firing choices around workplace culture.
As reported by The Telegraph, the employee was found to have secretly taken a photo of a colleague to send to a group chat and another directly to an employee who had a crush on them. Responding to the first, the employee with the crush, said “Look at bae there... so cute…working her a-- off but still looking great”. When the photo was shown to another employee, he was reported to management and both the photo's taker and the employee who shared it were fired.
The judge presiding over the case, Judge Walker claimed “there were no reasonable grounds” for this firing and that there was no “sexual harassment or indeed any harassment”. He argues that while the photos could be considered an invasion of privacy, “this is a world in which there are cameras in all sorts of locations”. Though the judgment states the firing was unjust, it also says “The conduct was something which should not have happened… and thus it is blameworthy”.
Apple will now have to pay compensation though the specific figure has not yet been revealed.
A wider problem
Just last month, a different UK judge ruled Apple unfairly fired an employee who told a coworker of Chinese heritage: "See you in nine months, as long as you lot don’t release another deadly disease on the world.”
As pointed out by The Telegraph above, Apple made many changes to the way it handles “toxic workplaces” in 2022 and this is raising tensions between the tech giant and UK courts. In the most recent hearing, the judge claimed that Apple’s policies were “vague” and couldn’t be demonstrably understood by employees. It is unclear how this will affect managerial decisions around Apple workplaces in the UK going forward.
