The US Department of Labor has opened a whistleblower investigation into Apple following a complaint from a former employee who said the company retaliated against her for speaking out about a potentially hazardous work site, according to multiple reports.
As The Financial Times first reported, the Labor Department didn’t provide specifics when it confirmed the existence of an investigation, but former senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik said she received a notification from Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that it had opened an investigation based on a complaint she filed.
Gjøvik worked at Apple for almost seven years, but in March 2021 she “raised concerns about the physical safety of my Apple office, [which] was a Federal EPA Superfund site on top of a mile long groundwater plume of industrial chemicals and [had] a long history of ‘vapor intrusion,'” Gjøvik wrote on her personal website, which features an extensive record of her discussions with Apple execs on the subject.
“Apple rented the building in 2015 and after some limited clean up & testing, moved employees in & never tested the air again,” Gjøvik alleged. When she raised concerns and tried to organize other employees, “Apple retaliated,” according to Gjøvik, who was fired in September.
Apple told CNN Business that it doesn’t comment on specific personnel issues, but said “we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised.”
Gjøvik and another former Apple employee also filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board in August that detailed her allegations of harassment and retaliation.
“Apple retaliated against me with such impunity. It seemed like they thought they’d never be held accountable,” Gjøvik told CNET. “I want to ensure the world sees that even the biggest company in the world isn’t immune from accountability.”
The news comes as the tech giant faces a wave of employee activism. An effort known as #AppleToo, for example, started in August with the goal of exposing alleged discrimination and harassment at the company.
