Another Apple former female employee is suing the company over discrimination and harassment. Bloomberg reports that Apple’s ex-top patent attorney, Jayna Richardson Whitt has filed her lawsuit at the California Superior Court in San Mateo County accusing the tech company of leaving her defenseless against her abuser who was a male colleague and terminating her after becoming aware of her “domestic abuse victim status”.
Apple accused of denying support for a female executive who was a domestic abuse victim
According to the report, Whitt is a single parent of Asian descent and she joined Apple in 2006 and over the years rose to senior positions like the Director of IP transactions. However, she complained of facing discrimination at the hands of her white male supervisor who “favored Caucasian males and subjected minorities, females, and employees with disabilities to discriminatory treatment”.
She explained in her complaint that discrimination was evident in the supervisor’s “personnel decisions, mentoring, assignments, and invitation to meeting”.
More importantly, she accused the tech giant of terminating her after learning about her abusive relationship with a white male colleague. Whitt detailed that Apple denied her request to help to secure her digital accounts and iPhone breached by her abuser.
She even shared evidence of abuse like her abuser pointing a gun to his head and “death threats and terrorization with the company but “Apple left her defenseless”.
Whitt said that the company which spent over $630,000 to protect CEO Tim Cook from a woman, left her helpless to secure her account and devices by herself. When she shared her experience online, Apple launched an investigation into her conduct and later, terminated her for violating the company’s policies.
Now, she is seeking undisclosed compensation for economic losses and emotional distress from the Cupertino tech giant.
Whitt is not the first female employee complaining of facing discrimination and harassment at the company. Previously, the #AppleToo movement shared multiple incidents of discrimination, and sexual harassment faced by female and minority employees at the hands of supervisors and store managers. And it appeared that the company terminates employees who file complaints against their bosses.
