Demanding Reform at Apple, Inc.
My Apple whistleblowing saga
I only resorted to this because everything I tried internally failed
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Legal ⚖️
Ashley Gjovik v. Apple
U.S. Department of Labor & California Department of Labor cases,
NLRB charges, and other government complaints
U.S. Department of Labor & California Department of Labor cases,
NLRB charges, and other government complaints
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Ashley's Apple Saga
Ashley Gjovik, a former Senior Engineering Program Manager at Apple, documented and exposed unsafe work conditions, disturbing surveillance and intimidation practices, and systemic malfeasance at Apple Inc. After facing increasing retaliation in response to her attempts to escalate her concerns internally, she took her complaints to regulators, the press, and the public in August of 2021.
Due to Apple's culture of secrecy, Gjovik was likely the first corporate Apple employee to publicly file charges against Apple, while employed, with a number of government agencies including the US EPA, US NLRB, US Department of Labor, US SEC, US Department of Justice, and the California Department of Labor. Apple fired Gjovik without explanation less than two weeks after her charges were filed and made public, and the day before she was scheduled to testify about Apple to a federal agency. Gjovik complained to Apple about ‘witness intimidation’ hours before she received a notice of termination.
Gjovik’s disclosures to the US EPA led to federal inspections of Apple’s operations at Silicon Valley Superfund sites in August 2021, where the regulator found a number of potential safety issues that may have put Gjovik and her coworkers at risk for exposure to carcinogenic chemicals. The US EPA ordered numerous corrective actions in 2022, including mandatory chemical exposure testing at Gjovik’s office in 2023. The outcome of Gjovik’s disclosures to the US EPA has been revealed solely due to her persistent FOIA requests and relentless investigation into the safety of the work conditions of her now ex-coworkers.
Her charges and disclosures to the US NLRB led to two decisions of merit in her favor and three more still pending. On January 30 2023, the US NLRB found merit in Gjovik’s allegations that Apple’s employment policies and non-disclosure agreements, and a threatening email sent by the CEO to staff in September 2021, all violated federal labor law. Gjovik’s charges led to the first finding of a nation-wide violation of the NLRA by Apple, and any resolution will require a nation-wide remedy from Apple.
Gjovik’s policy charges, exemplified by her retaliation charges, are also anticipated to potentially be a vehicle for the NLRB to reform national labor law precedent for all applicable US employers, creating a more employee-friendly standard for workplace polices and employment agreements. Gjovik’s three remaining NLRB charges allege she was harassed, threatened, intimidated, coerced, surveilled, and retaliated against for exercising her federally protected labor rights and for reporting Apple’s misconduct to the NLRB. Apple’s explanation for firing Gjovik vaguely cited their confidentiality policies, which have now been found to violate federal law.
Gjovik also has whistleblower cases currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Whistleblower Protection Program with allegations of retaliation for exercising federally protected whistleblower rights under CERCLA, SOX, and OSH Act statutes. Her California Department of Labor retaliation and policy cases were queued pending the federal investigation. Gjovik is also in discussions with US SEC about matters disclosed in her SEC whistleblower tips underlying her SOX retaliation charge, and her later disclosures related to Apple’s unlawful NDAs and additional allegations of fraud.
In March 2022, Gjovik learned Apple’s proffered justification for her termination was that Apple supposedly fired her because she publicly disclosed information about Apple’s invasive surveillance practices, coercive biometrics collection, and disquieting medical studies on employees. In response to Apple’s claim, Gjovik filed additional charges domestically and with foreign governments on those matters, sharing even more information about the programs and her concerns. Gjovik’s retaliation cases argue her disclosures were not only protected, but that Apple’s original conduct was unlawful – calling into question the legality of several of Apple’s consumer products. Following Gjovik’s charges, Bavaria is investigating Apple’s biometrics engineering office in the German region, and the U.S. FTC is also looking into her complaint that Apple developed Face ID with coerced and otherwise nonconsensual data. The US NLRB, and California and US Departments of Labor will also rule on the issue as part of Gjovik’s retaliation cases.
Gjovik worked at Apple for over six years, where she was responsible for high-risk projects including managing entire iOS software updates, leading software failure analysis following new product introduction, functioning as a chief of staff for several executives, and working in Apple’s legal department where she ironically led efforts to establish Apple’s first company-wide AI ethics policy.
Gjovik is now a lawyer – she graduated from law school in 2022 with a Juris Doctor and a certificate in Public International Law, with honors. She also attended Oxford University in 2021 for an intensive Transitional Justice program, which she said inspired the holistic approach she has taken attempting to reform Apple’s business practices. She founded the D&G Center in 2022 and was elected as the Whistleblower Officer on the IBA Anti-Corruption Compliance subcommittee in 2023. Gjovik is representing herself pro se on all of her Apple cases and charges – with strategic and moral support from a community of human rights activists, whistleblowers, and labor organizers.
Read more here.
Due to Apple's culture of secrecy, Gjovik was likely the first corporate Apple employee to publicly file charges against Apple, while employed, with a number of government agencies including the US EPA, US NLRB, US Department of Labor, US SEC, US Department of Justice, and the California Department of Labor. Apple fired Gjovik without explanation less than two weeks after her charges were filed and made public, and the day before she was scheduled to testify about Apple to a federal agency. Gjovik complained to Apple about ‘witness intimidation’ hours before she received a notice of termination.
Gjovik’s disclosures to the US EPA led to federal inspections of Apple’s operations at Silicon Valley Superfund sites in August 2021, where the regulator found a number of potential safety issues that may have put Gjovik and her coworkers at risk for exposure to carcinogenic chemicals. The US EPA ordered numerous corrective actions in 2022, including mandatory chemical exposure testing at Gjovik’s office in 2023. The outcome of Gjovik’s disclosures to the US EPA has been revealed solely due to her persistent FOIA requests and relentless investigation into the safety of the work conditions of her now ex-coworkers.
Her charges and disclosures to the US NLRB led to two decisions of merit in her favor and three more still pending. On January 30 2023, the US NLRB found merit in Gjovik’s allegations that Apple’s employment policies and non-disclosure agreements, and a threatening email sent by the CEO to staff in September 2021, all violated federal labor law. Gjovik’s charges led to the first finding of a nation-wide violation of the NLRA by Apple, and any resolution will require a nation-wide remedy from Apple.
Gjovik’s policy charges, exemplified by her retaliation charges, are also anticipated to potentially be a vehicle for the NLRB to reform national labor law precedent for all applicable US employers, creating a more employee-friendly standard for workplace polices and employment agreements. Gjovik’s three remaining NLRB charges allege she was harassed, threatened, intimidated, coerced, surveilled, and retaliated against for exercising her federally protected labor rights and for reporting Apple’s misconduct to the NLRB. Apple’s explanation for firing Gjovik vaguely cited their confidentiality policies, which have now been found to violate federal law.
Gjovik also has whistleblower cases currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Whistleblower Protection Program with allegations of retaliation for exercising federally protected whistleblower rights under CERCLA, SOX, and OSH Act statutes. Her California Department of Labor retaliation and policy cases were queued pending the federal investigation. Gjovik is also in discussions with US SEC about matters disclosed in her SEC whistleblower tips underlying her SOX retaliation charge, and her later disclosures related to Apple’s unlawful NDAs and additional allegations of fraud.
In March 2022, Gjovik learned Apple’s proffered justification for her termination was that Apple supposedly fired her because she publicly disclosed information about Apple’s invasive surveillance practices, coercive biometrics collection, and disquieting medical studies on employees. In response to Apple’s claim, Gjovik filed additional charges domestically and with foreign governments on those matters, sharing even more information about the programs and her concerns. Gjovik’s retaliation cases argue her disclosures were not only protected, but that Apple’s original conduct was unlawful – calling into question the legality of several of Apple’s consumer products. Following Gjovik’s charges, Bavaria is investigating Apple’s biometrics engineering office in the German region, and the U.S. FTC is also looking into her complaint that Apple developed Face ID with coerced and otherwise nonconsensual data. The US NLRB, and California and US Departments of Labor will also rule on the issue as part of Gjovik’s retaliation cases.
Gjovik worked at Apple for over six years, where she was responsible for high-risk projects including managing entire iOS software updates, leading software failure analysis following new product introduction, functioning as a chief of staff for several executives, and working in Apple’s legal department where she ironically led efforts to establish Apple’s first company-wide AI ethics policy.
Gjovik is now a lawyer – she graduated from law school in 2022 with a Juris Doctor and a certificate in Public International Law, with honors. She also attended Oxford University in 2021 for an intensive Transitional Justice program, which she said inspired the holistic approach she has taken attempting to reform Apple’s business practices. She founded the D&G Center in 2022 and was elected as the Whistleblower Officer on the IBA Anti-Corruption Compliance subcommittee in 2023. Gjovik is representing herself pro se on all of her Apple cases and charges – with strategic and moral support from a community of human rights activists, whistleblowers, and labor organizers.
Read more here.
Documents: Records, Evidence, FOIA Releases
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Public Records Requests & Releases
FOIA and PRA Releases Termination Records View the events of my termination on September 9, 2021. Document Repo View the document repositories at: https://github.com/justiceatapple |
The Saga
Ashley's Apple Story Justice at Apple Open Letter Justice at Apple Social Media Post Archive I documented a chronological timeline of my Twitter posts about Apple from 2021 March-September |
