JAKARTA - Apple Inc., will no longer prohibit employees from talking about harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Reported by the Financial Times, the company shared the news after reviewing Apple's non-disclosure (NDAs) agreement, which previously excluded languages about discussions about working conditions.
Apple's shareholders chose to approve an independent review in March after the company failed to make the suggested changes to its hidden clause last year.
This initiative received support from Nia Impact Capital, the Transparency coalition in the Labor Agreement (TEA), and Ifeoma Ozoma, co-sponsors from Silenced No More Act who should protect workers who talk about harassment and discrimination at work.
We are thrilled to share that @Apple has released their report & is ending use of concealment clauses in employee contracts, both domestically & for international workers. Contract employees too! This is ground breaking shift for the tech industry.
— Nia Impact Capital (@NiaInvest) December 9, 2022
In a note entitled, "Our Commitment to Open and Collaborative Workshop (Our Commitment to an Open and Collaborative Workplace,)," Apple says "employees have the right to speak freely about the conditions of their workplaces, including harassment and discrimination."
They added that independent reviewers only found provisions that could be "interpreted as limiting one's ability to talk about such behavior" in "finite situations", and that Apple had "committed not to enforce such restrictions and make improvements and clarifications going forward.
The company has also included the language of the California Anti-Silence Act (California's Silenced No More Act in) in a separation agreement for employees across the US.
The use of Apple's hidden clauses drew attention after Cher Scarlett, organizer of #AppleToo and former Apple engineer, left the company behind and accused it of being "in coercion and suppression activities that allow abuse and harassment of protected collective activity organizers."
As noted by Insider's report, Scarlett claims that Apple prevented her from speaking in detail about her departure from the company as part of a layoff agreement. A few months later, a group of treasurers asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Apple was using NDA to silence workers.
We are very pleased to share that Apple has released their report & ending the use of the hidden clause in employee contracts, both domestically and for international workers, "wrote Nia Impact Capital on Twitter. They note that contract employees are also included. This is a breakthrough change for the tech industry.
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