US labor board withdraws claims Apple CEO violated employee rights: Report

The U.S. labor board has withdrawn its allegations that Apple CEO Tim Cook violated federal labor law and several other claims, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

The office of the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board said it was withdrawing many of the claims in a complaint it had issued against Apple in January, the report said, citing a letter.

The dismissed allegations include claims that Cook violated workers' rights when he sent an email in September 2021 saying Apple was doing whatever it could to track down those who leaked information from a confidential meeting, Bloomberg said.


The email came after media reports about an internal meeting during which management fielded questions about topics such as pay equity and Apple's response to a Texas anti-abortion law.

The labor board is also retracting allegations that the iPhone maker broke the law by imposing confidentiality rules, firing Janneke Parrish and surveilling workers or making them think they were under surveillance, the report said.

The NLRB and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple was facing at least three complaints from the labor board claiming it has illegally deterred employees from discussing issues, such as sex bias and pay discrimination, with each other and the media, including by restricting their use of social media and workplace messaging app Slack. The company has denied wrongdoing.