Demanding Reform at Apple, Inc.


​My Apple whistleblowing saga
 ​I only resorted to this because everything I tried internally failed


​🎤

Legal ⚖️
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​Ashley Gjovik v. Apple

U.S. Department of Labor & California Department of Labor cases,
my NLRB charges, and my other government complaints

Retaliation Timeline

  • 2015 Feb - Gjovik joins Apple. She works in Software Engineering from 2015-2016 facing a hostile work environment, and then transfers to Hardware Engineering in 2017 & faces a hostile work environment and discrimination there until she is fired in 2021. She receives positive reviews, salary increases, bonuses, and additional RSU grants every year she works at Apple. 
  • 2019 Sept - Gjovik suffers bizarre fainting spell at her Apple office in Sunnyvale.
  • 2020 Feb - Gjovik moves into Santa Clara Square apartments in Santa Clara. Gjovik becomes severely ill for seven months & doctors can not figure out why her blood pressure is volatile, heart rate is slow, experiencing premature ventricular contractions, covered in rashes, & experiencing tumors on her skin and thyroid with frequent debilitating fainting spells similar to what she experienced at her office in 2019.
  • 2020 Sept - Gjovik discovers apartment were built on a Honeywell Superfund site groundwater plume, and that there is an Apple office next door that also appears to have pollution on site. 
  • 2020 Sept - Gjovik contacts Apple Real Estate to inquire about the Apple office. Apple will not comment on the office but does suggest she use "Extreme Condition Leave" time-off to move out of her current apartment. 
  • 2020 Oct - Gjovik moves out of apartment (and does use the special time off). Gjovik's good health returns, but she is traumatized by the health crisis & to also learn about how polluted the area is.
  • 2021 March 15 - Gjovik publishes article about the experience with the apartment & struggles to get any help from the government in investigating issues. Additional victims from the apartment complex come forward after reading her article, but the government still will not help. Gjovik publishes an educational website about toxic waste chemical exposure in California. 
  • 2021 March 17 - Apple contacts Gjovik & coworkers asking to test their Superfund office for "vapor intrusion." Apple does not tell them its a Superfund site or explain what vapor intrusion is.
  • 2021 March 22 - Apple boss told Gjovik not to talk about her safety concerns with coworkers. Says she's only allowed to talk to her bosses, Apple HR, or Apple EH&S. Boss says it was "only a warning" due to her "mental health issues," & then tells her he received feedback she was "too hard on the white man" during a recent diversity training. Gjovik attempts to explain labor laws to her boss who interrupts her, loudly stating "thank you for taking the feedback."
  • 2021 April 2 - Gjovik meets with Apple EH&S and raises concerns about safety & CERCLA (Superfund) compliance at her office. Apple tells Gjovik that employees have "no Right to Know" they work on Superfund sites. 
  • 2021 April - Gjovik starts reporting Apple's weird behavior about the site to the US EPA.
  • 2021 April - Gjovik asks for help from Apple Employee Relations to "explain labor laws" to her boss - but Employee Relations refuses, & instead opens a sexism investigation into Gjovik's bosses - despite Gjovik's protests that it will only cause retaliation and does not want an investigation.
  • 2021 April - US EPA begins asking the responsible party (Northrop Grumman) for background information & for the status of the site
  • 2021 May 12 - US EPA asks Northrop Grumman for the first inspection report on the Sub-Slat Depressurization system on the roof of the site (was written 2020 Nov but never submitted to US EPA).
  • 2021 May 12 - Gjovik submits Worker's Compensation form for the 2019 fainting spell from chemical exposure at the office. 
  • 2021 May 17 - Apple now tells Gjovik they won't test the air in Gjovik's office or answer any more of her questions. Apple gives Gjovik a "five-point balancing test" if she wants to talk to her coworkers about safety.
  • 2021 June - Apple tells Gjovik she has to come back to work at her Superfund office in September unless she files an ADA request form to about chemical exposure. Gjovik protests. Apple also requests Gjovik give Apple Inc access to all of Gjovik's medical records. Apple also tells Gjovik to consider taking medical leave if she's upset about all the retaliation. Gjovik refuses medical leave (that doesn't fix hostile work environments) but resorts to requesting ADA accommodations under a "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities" diagnosis due to fear of her office. Gjovik requests meeting with the head of Employee Retaliations to understand what the hell is going on at Apple.
  • 2021 June/July - Apple bosses begin removing Gjovik from desirable projects and reassigning her to very unfavorable projects. Bosses quadruple Gjovik's workload. Bosses refuse to act on complaints of harassment and retaliation, tell Gjovik she can quit if she doesn't like it. One of Gjovik's two bosses sends an email communicating as such in June & then never contacts or responds to Gjovik ever again.
  • 2021 June/July - Gjovik begins organizing with coworkers around concerns about systemic retaliation, cover-ups of harassment and discrimination, abusive use of medical leave & ADA requests, and a chilling culture of censorship and surveillance. Gjovik begins protesting Apple's overly restrictive NDAs on Apple Slack and in smaller discussions with coworkers.
  • 2021 July - Gjovik begins raising concerns about workplace safety related to COVID-19 as well, internally and externally. New York Times quotes Gjovik critiquing Apple's plan to return to work during the Delta surge. Gjovik also submits a public records request for information on Apple's reporting to the government about COVID outbreaks since they were not sharing it with workers. Gjovik notifies coworkers & Apple she filed it.
  • 2021 July 2 - Apple notifies Gjovik there are cracks in the floor of the site & they will repair the cracks. Gjovik asks for Apple to test the air before they fix the cracks. Apple refuses. Gjovik asks Apple to consult US EPA. Apple says they don't have to tell US EPA anything about it. Gjovik notifies US EPA about all of it. Gjovik notifies Apple she notified US EPA.
  • 2021 July - US EPA reviews the Sub-Slat Depressurization report for Gjovik's office & notices that the SSD system vents are too low to disburse the chemicals into the air, and they are too close to the HVAC intake for the building. 
  • 2021 July - Gjovik begins raising concerns internally & externally, that Apple is covering up safety issues, at least partially due to the prior head of the US EPA now running Lobbying for Apple, and also the prior CEO of Northrop Grumman on Apple's Board of Directors & Chairing the Finance & Audit Committee. 
  • 2021 July - Apple Employee Relations supposedly begins investigating Gjovik's complaints of hostile work environment, harassment, discrimination, and retaliation since she started in 2015.
  • 2021 July 26 - Gjovik starts a thread on Apple Slack asking if any other workers were retaliated against for simply raising concerns at Apple. Many people respond to the thread and privately confirming they suffered something similar as to what Gjovik had.
  • 2021 July 26 - US EPA informs Northrop Grumman and Apple they will be ordering a safety inspection of Gjovik's office. They arrange for the inspection on August 19 2021. Gjovik doesn't learn about this until May 2022.
  • 2021 Aug 4 - Sunnyvale city request on site hazardous materials/waste inspection of Gjovik's office. City requests August 19 but Apple declines. Inspection scheduled for Sept 9 2021.
  • 2021 Aug 4 - Gjovik is suddenly "removed from the workplace & all workplace interactions" under the premise that its somehow part of the Employee Relations investigation.
  • 2021 Aug 4 - Apple EH&S sends contractors and workers to Gjovik's office for unknown testing and repairs related to vapor intrusion mitigation. They spend multiple days a week on site before EPA arrives Aug 19 2021.
  • 2021 Aug 19 - US EPA inspects Gjovik's office & finds a number of issues related to CERCLA compliance & safety concerns, many of which were the same issues Gjovik tried to raise starting in April. US EPA requests corrections from Apple & Northrop Grumman.
  • 2021 Aug 23 - Gjovik files Apple Business Conduct complaint about what believes to be a cover-up related to the office, as well as conflicts of interests with Lisa Jackson & Ronald Sugar related to the matter. Gjovik asks if Sugar reported his COI when he was on the Apple Board & when Apple decided to rent the office in 2014, less than five years after Sugar retired from Northrop. 
  • 2021 Aug 26 - Gjovik files NLRB charge against Apple for unfair labor practices & retaliation. It is promptly disclosed on social media & in the press.
  • 2021 Aug 29 - Gjovik files California DOL retaliation & US DOL whistleblower retaliation charges against Apple.  They are promptly disclosed on social media & in the press.
  • 2021 Aug 31 - Gjovik files SEC tip about the conflicts of interest & apparent cover-up.  It is promptly disclosed on social media & in the press.
  • 2021 Aug 31 - Gjovik blows the whistle on Apple's surveillance of employees & coercive harvesting of employee biometrics & other private data. 
  • 2021 Sept - Gjovik files several complaints to the US DOJ and FBI about Apple's corruption, violations of sanctions laws, and retaliation against her as a whistleblower.
  • 2021 Sept 9 - The City of Sunnyvale inspects Gjovik's Apple office & cites Apple for hazardous violations. 
  • 2021 Sept 9 - Gjovik is abruptly contacted by an Apple "Workplace Violence" interrogator who demands to talk to her on the phone within in the hour. Gjovik asks to keep the conversation in writing and complaints of federal witness intimidation the day before her NLRB affidavit. The interrogator swiftly suspends Gjovik's account access & claims she refuses to participate. Gjovik receives an email from her VP a few hours later notifying her she's been terminated. The letter does not explain what she did other than vague accusations, including failure to participate in an investigation. [See termination transcript]
  • 2021 Sept 10 - Gjovik's first affidavit with the NLRB for her unfair labor practices charges against Apple. 
  • 2021 Sept - Gjovik files additional charges against Apple for the additional retaliation. 
  • 2021 Sept - Apple mails Gjovik's possessions back to her: broken, in a box with glass shards, & with one items compromised with an inserted listening device Gjovik would not discover until 2022. Before the package arrives, an account, believed to be Apple, suggests it may contain the severed head of one of Gjovik's loved ones.
  • 2021 Nov - Lisa Jackson, from her @apple email account, attempts to hand select the US EPA executive who would oversee Gjovik's Apple office. US EPA declines to accept her meddling.
  • 2022 Jan - Gjovik files additional charges against Apple for additional retaliation & witness intimidation.
  • 2022 March - Gjovik sees Apple's formal justification for firing her for the first time. Apple says its because she exposed & protested Apple's surveillance of employees, and their coercive harvesting of employee biometrics & personal data. 
  • 2022 May - Gjovik finally learns there was an inspection of her Apple office on Aug 19. She also learns for the first time about the HVAC/SSD issues.
  • 2022 July - Gjovik wins appeal of her unemployment insurance case. An Administrative Law Judge finds Gjovik was terminated for reasons other than misconduct by Gjovik. 
  • 2022 Sept - Gjovik publishes open letter to US DOL, US NLRB, & US EEOC complaining of rampant conflicts of interest & US gov corruption with Apple about labor/employee disputes, noting her experience & pointing to cases from other employees.
  • 2022 Oct - Gjovik finally learns that the US EPA requested the inspection of her office on July 26, which was one week before Gjovik was suspended. 
  • 2022 Dec - Gjovik finally learns the Aug 19 2021 EPA inspection of her office was formally due to Gjovik's disclosures. 
  • 2023 Jan - Gjovik finally learns of the Sept 9 2021 city inspection of her office.

Note: US NLRB, US DOL, & California DOL cases are all still pending awaiting decisions.

For more, see the legal page.

Documents: Records, Evidence, FOIA Releases

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

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​