Apple accused of racism and sexism over plan to get workers back to the office

1 May 2022, 21:42 | Updated: 1 May 2022, 21:44

Apple has been accused of racism and sexism by some of its staff after they said a push to move away from working from home would result in a "younger, whiter [and] more male-dominated" workplace.

In an open latter to CEO Tim Cook, the employees from the Apple Together group said the move back to in-person working would "change the makeup" of the workforce and would result in recruitment and staff retention relying on people's personal factors, such as whether they can relocate.

The group also said that gender and economic status would play a part, saying certain privileges made working in the office much easier.

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"Privileges like being born into a gender that society doesn’t expect the majority of care-work from, so it’s easy to disappear into an office all day, without doing your fair share of unpaid work in society," they wrote.

"Or being rich enough to pay others to do your care-work for you."

The group also said "being born in the right place so you don't have to relocate", "being young enough to start a new life in a new city/country" and "having a stay-at-home spouse who will move with you" made working in the office much easier for some people.

"Our current policies requiring everyone to relocate to the office their team happens to be based in, and being in the office at least 3 fixed days of the week, will change the makeup of our workforce," the letter reads.

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"It will make Apple younger, whiter, more male-dominated, more neuro-normative, more able-bodied."

It was in response to a plan requiring staff to be in the office for one day a week from April 11, going up to two days three weeks later, and then three days per week from May 23.

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The letter has been heavily criticised, with LBC's Camilla Tominey saying people needed to make up their mind.

"One thing that came out of the pandemic is that it was disadvantaging people who lived in less privileged accommodation who were trying to work on a laptop on the kitchen table with kids running around in a one bedroom flat," she said.

"We said it was unfair on them to make them work from home because what they needed was an office environment to be able to concentrate and do their job.

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"Now we're saying that it's discriminatory to ask people to come into the office even though that's what they've been doing for years?

"I don't understand."