Apple Signs Second Federal Labor Settlement Over Silencing of Employees — This Time About Worker Safety

Statement of Ashley M. Gjøvik, Charging Party, NLRB Case 32-CA-282142

Five years ago, when I raised concerns about toxic chemical exposure in an Apple office, Apple's managers and "Employee Relations" told me — and by example, told every Apple employee — to stay quiet. Today, Apple has signed a federal settlement agreement with the National Labor Relations Board promising, in writing, that it will never do that again.

Under the settlement, Apple must post and email a federal Notice to Employees stating — in Apple's own signed words — that:

• WE WILL NOT tell you not to speak with others about your working conditions, including your workplace environmental health and safety concerns.
• WE WILL NOT tell you to use a "balancing test" — to make sure information is complete and accurate, doesn't cause panic, and makes no assessment about safety — before you talk to coworkers about health and safety.
• WE WILL NOT tell you to come to us first before communicating your health and safety concerns to others.
• WE WILL NOT direct you to refrain from talking with other employees while you are on administrative leave.
• WE WILL NOT impliedly threaten you with discipline for talking with other employees about working conditions.

Read that list again. Every line corresponds to something Apple actually did in 2021 — by phone, by email, by video call — according to the federal complaint the NLRB's own prosecutors issued after a multi-year investigation. In 2021, Apple told a worker that talking about workplace safety was a "warning." In 2026, the federal government made Apple put the opposite in writing.

This is Apple's second NLRB settlement arising from my charges. In 2025, Apple was required to rescind unlawful confidentiality and employment policies nationwide (Case 32-CA-284428). Together, these settlements establish, on the public record, what Apple workers have always known and what Apple spent years denying: you have the legal right to talk to each other — about pay, about safety, about working conditions, about your leave, about your workplace — and no NDA, no policy, no manager, and no "Employee Relations" script can lawfully take that from you.

To every Apple employee who was told to stay quiet, who watched what happened to those of us who spoke up, and who thought twice before posting in that Slack channel: this Notice is for you. I signed the settlement — but I also filed a formal Statement with the NLRB, because this settlement does not go nearly far enough.

The case was gutted before it was settled. In September 2025, the NLRB withdrew the heart of the complaint — my unlawful suspension and termination — along with reinstatement, backpay, an apology, expungement, and mandatory training for Apple's managers. My appeal was denied this May purely on "prosecutorial discretion" grounds, with no ruling on the merits. My objections to that gutting are now incorporated into the settlement record.

One bulletin board is not a remedy. Apple's violations were committed by phone, email, and video, against remote employees, and were reported around the world. The settlement requires a paper posting next to a locker room in one building in Sunnyvale, plus an email to one team. The NLRB's own 2024 complaint demanded posting at all Apple facilities and on Slack, intranet, and email, plus training. The prior settlement in my other case was nationwide. I've asked the NLRB to explain why workers this time get a notice most affected employees will never see — and to require nationwide electronic posting or a reading of the Notice by a senior Apple executive.

Apple is a repeat offender. Federal settlement standards require considering a company's history of labor violations. Apple's recent record — the nationwide policy settlement, retail store cases, and multiple charges from other employees over the same 2021 events — should have produced a stronger remedy, not one of the lightest the agency offers.

The NLRB's General Counsel used to be Apple's defense lawyer — on this exact case. The current General Counsel of the NLRB, Crystal Carey, appeared as counsel of record for Apple, in this case, while at Morgan Lewis — her name is on the government's own service list from December 2024. She now runs the office with final, unreviewable authority over the case, and the office that would hear any appeal. I have formally asked the NLRB to disclose, on the record, whether she is recused, who actually made the decisions to shrink this case and approve this settlement, and how future compliance decisions will be walled off from the conflict. Workers are entitled to know whether the referee used to play for the other team — because in this case, she literally did.

I signed because Apple workers deserve this Notice now; not after more years of litigation. But make no mistake: a company worth trillions of dollars violated federal labor law, admitted nothing, and was asked for a piece of paper and an email. My civil case and Department of Labor proceedings continue, fully preserved. The evidence the government gathered remains available. And every Apple employee now has a signed federal document to point to the next time anyone at Apple suggests they should stay quiet.

The settlement agreement, Notice to Employees, complaints, and my filed Statement are available below.

- Ashley Gjovik 

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