Apple and Netflix are facing loud criticism from their workforce these days - and both companies have now laid off employees in this context.

In the case of the iPhone manufacturer, it was one of the leaders of a recently launched internal protest group called "#AppleToo", which denounced grievances in the company.

Netflix has split with a person who, according to a media report, is one of the organizers of a strike planned for this week.

Beyond their activist roles, the employees in question were apparently suspected in both cases of disclosing internal company information to the public.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

  • Follow I follow

The two layoffs provide further examples of the fact that large American tech companies are increasingly grappling with unrest in their own workforce.

There have recently been increased internal protest movements elsewhere as well.

Google employees even formed their own union that year, which is very unusual in the industry.

Before that, there was a less formal group of Google employees.

Some time ago she organized a major employee strike.

Racism, sexism, discrimination

The AppleToo movement accuses its employer of having a "persistent pattern" of inequality that manifests itself in racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. Apple's culture of secrecy creates "an opaque, intimidating fortress" for these disadvantaged groups, according to the group's website. The now dismissed employee is Janneke Parrish, a map services manager who has collected and published anonymous employee reviews for AppleToo. She told American media that she was fired in connection with an internal investigation into whether she was the source of information made public from a staff meeting with CEO Tim Cook in September.Cook later expressed anger at the leak in an internal email to the workforce, saying that anyone disclosing confidential information does not belong in the company and Apple is doing "everything in our power" to identify such individuals. Parrish denies sharing the information. As the industry publication The Verge writes, some employees speculate that Parrish had to leave because of her AppleToo activities.Parrish had to leave because of her AppleToo activities.Parrish had to leave because of her AppleToo activities.

In Netflix's case, the termination also has to do with information leakage, and appears to be related to the controversy surrounding a recently released comedy show starring Dave Chappelle. Parts of this show were considered offensive to trans people by some viewers and parts of the Netflix workforce. There have been calls for the show to be phased out and a group of Netflix employees have called for a strike this Wednesday. Netflix has not identified the person who has now been sacked, according to The Verge, it is someone who organized the strike. Netflix itself justified the termination by saying that the person concerned had disclosed confidential data, which apparently related to financial information about the comedy show,published by Bloomberg news agency last week. The video service suggested that the person may have done this “out of disappointment” with their company, but it was important to maintain “a culture of trust”.