Apple has terminated the contract of Ashley Gjøvik, the company’s software engineer after she refused to attend a discussion on a “sensitive Intellectual Property matter.” Last month, Gjøvik went public with her grievance at the company. On Twitter, she shared that she faced sexism at Apple, and on reporting the issue to the concerned HR team, she was put on indefinite paid leave and her access to the company’s Slack channels was revoked during the investigation.
Recently, she also filed a complaint at the U.S. National Labor Agency (NLA) for alleged discrimination and harassment at Apple. An organizer of the #AppleToo movement and currently a software engineer at the company Cher Scarlett also filed a complaint at the NLA against the company’s pay inequality and culture of secrecy.
Apple terminates senior engineering program manager without listening to her side of the story
Ashley Gjøvik took to Twitter again to detail how the tech company fired her. She shared an email correspondence by an employee relations officer of the AMR Threat Assessment and Workplace Violence department. In the email, Gjøvik was requested to appear in person at the office for an urgent discussion on a sensitive Intellectual Property matter.
Any bets if I get a literal knock on my physical door from #Apple today? pic.twitter.com/oFqw4VFaGi
— Ashley M. Gjøvik (@ashleygjovik) September 9, 2021
After Gjøvik refused to attend the discussion and asked for all communication via email only, she received her termination letter. She wrote:
The employee relations representative responded to say that because she had chosen not to participate in the discussion, they would move forward with the information they had and — “given the seriousness of these allegations” — suspend her access to Apple systems. Hours later, Gjøvik received an email that her employment at Apple was being terminated, effective tomorrow.
Recently, the tech giant’s employees have been voicing their disagreements with the company’s policies and that too publically. After the hybrid work model was announced in July, thousands of employees pushed back against the policy and asked for a more flexible remote work policy. Cher Scarlett started three pay equity surveys and when the company crushed those surveys, she organized a movement to hold the company accountable for ignoring employees by sharing stories of workplace harassment, discrimination, and sexual abuse.
