In October 2021, Apple told the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) that it does not silence employees by making them sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). But an aggrieved ex-employee, leader of the #AppleToo movement, and whistleblower, Cher Scarlet filed a complaint at the SEC that Apple made her sign an NDA, thus, the company lied about the use of NDAs to the SEC.
Now, eight state treasurers have written to the SEC to prohibit the use of NDAs to gag the departing employees from highlighting the discrimination at work and have asked to launch an investigation into Apple’s false statement on the matter.
Treasurers of California, Rhode Island, and six other states write to SEC to ban the use of NDA and launch an investigation against Apple
In the letter written to the Chairman of SEC, Gary Gensler, state treasures of Rhode Island, California, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and Kansas on the “State Treasurer Support for Transparency in Employment Agreements, Request for Investigation of Apple’s Statements to the SEC” seek the ban of NDAs and scrutiny of Apple for lying to SEC and the stakeholders on the issue.
We encourage the SEC to support efforts to end the use of concealment clauses in employment and post-employment agreements as they pertain to issues of discrimination, harassment, and other unlawful acts.
Shareholder accountability depends on robust transparency, and that transparency must extend to workplace culture […]
We further request that the Securities and Exchange Commission investigate Apple’s statements to the SEC about their use of employment and post-employment agreements in their letter to the SEC dated October 18, 2021. Multiple news reports have stated that whistleblower documents demonstrate Apple uses the very concealment clauses it repeatedly claimed it does not use in its bid to have the SEC grant No Action relief.
We are interested to learn whether or not Apple misled the Commission and investors about this matter, and we are hopeful that the SEC will act to preserve the integrity of the shareholder proposal process.
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