For those of our readers that can't get enough Apple legal news, your ship has come in this week. Yesterday, we told you about a lawsuit mounted against Apple and a few of iOS developers for which alleges that location and usage information supplied by iOS devices to Apple and third-party developers was being shared with advertisers without permission. Today, we've got something a little different, but just as interesting: An allegation against Apple of workplace discrimination.
In 2008, Nicole Sullivan accepted a job at Apple's SoHo Apple Store, where she worked until the spring of 2009. At that time, Sullivan was diagnosed with a nervous disorder. Under the care of her physicians, she took a leave of medical absence from working for Apple. Sullivan remained on leave for a four month period. For the sake of the store's operations, her position former was filled. Upon returning to work, Sullivan stated that she was treated differently by the SoHo Apple Store's management and her former co-workers, who she claims made it obvious that they felt she was mentally ill. As her old position had been filled, Sullivan was told that she would be placed in a "holding pattern" until a suitable position could be found for her. As such, Sullivan alleges that she was returned to work at her former wage, but spent the majority of her time sitting at a table away from the public and the majority of her co-workers.
The lawsuit states that Sullivan applied for a number of positions at the SoHo Apple Retail location, but was not awarded them. When she applied for a position at the store's Genius Bar, Sullivan was allegedly told that she was not given the job as the store's management were worried about her mental state. This, despite her having been given a clean bill of mental health by her psychiatrist.
As such, lawyers on behalf of Ms. Sullivan are arguing that Apple has violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, and are suing the company for a sum of $300,000 in punitive damages to compensate her for the emotional distress, embarrassment.
While it's become old hat for companies to sue Apple for patent infringement and other matters pertaining to intellectual property, cases of this nature don't seem to come around as often. Have no doubt that we'll be watching this one closely.
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DeltaKilo
December 30, 2010 at 8:15pm
I worked for an Apple Store for over a year, having come into it from a 3rd party service provider. The way apple treated its employees was...stupid, to say the least. Many employees who were senior and qualified for positions were treated with hostility while unqualified talent was recruited from outside the company. Some employees were threatened and forced out of the company, or treated poorly when they chose to fight the behavior.
Management is in a lot of cases inept, and instead of staffing to the level to be able to comfortably afford customers quality time to get their computers serviced, too few technical people are kept on staff or are scheduled to work to meet ever-increasing demand to focus on quicker turnaround times for repairs, including reducing the time a genius spent with customers and beginning to require geniuses to take multiple appointments at once.
It's sad to see such a great company fall into using tactics to force the spirit of apple out of the stores in favor of more obviously-retail-oriented ideas, and treating the people who believe in the company like dirt. It's no wonder Apple has such a high turnover in its employees.
thomassabo666
December 30, 2010 at 1:41am
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purplemaizenjm
December 29, 2010 at 4:41pm
It looks like everyone wants to get into the act.... LOL I wonder what is going to happen next.... I hope Apple wins because the case I read from the stock market reports, I won't mention the guys name he use to be a partner with Mr Jobs in the beginning he is sueing him also... and I believe all his patents have expired. He is also suing google, facebook, and ebay.
