Apple Said To Ban 'Pay Equity' Slack Channel Amid Growing Internal Discord

Apple Inc AAPL employees can reportedly no longer use a channel dedicated to pay equity on Slack, a work-oriented messaging software owned by Salesforce.com, Inc CRM. 

What Happened: Apple cited internal “Slack Terms of Use” on the removal of the channel even though its employee relations team admitted that the topic was aligned with “Apple’s commitment to pay equity,” reported The Verge.

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Employees were told by Apple’s human resources team that Slack channels are made available to “conduct Apple business and must advance the work, deliverables, or mission of Apple departments and teams.

The Verge noted an uneven implementation of Apple’s Slack rules, which mandate that the in-office chat app channels for activities and hobbies not recognized as Apple Employee clubs or Diversity Network Associations are not permitted and should not be created.

Cited examples by The Verge included #fun-dogs with more than 5,000 members and #dad-jokes with more than 2,000 participants.

Why It Matters: Late August, Apple employees organized under a new banner ‘#AppleToo,’ spearheaded by Cher Scarlett, a principal software engineer at the company. 

The movement’s website invited employees to participate in a password-protected “Wage Transparency Survey.”

See Also: Apple Employees' Movement Publishes Stories Of Facing Harassment, Discrimination At Tech Giant

Scarlett said on Twitter earlier last month that the most disturbing thing she noticed about the data emanating from the survey was the disparity between the gender demographics between white and non-white respondents.

Honestly, without seeing the data team analyze the salaries, the most disturbing thing I noticed about this data is the disparity between the gender demographics between white and non-white respondents. Out of nearly 2,000 people... it's alarming. pic.twitter.com/idvfVhQDD3

— Cher Scarlett #AppleToo (@cherthedev) August 14, 2021

Apple has repeatedly shut down employee-run surveys concerning pay equity with its people’s team sending a memo to employees with information on prohibited surveys, The Verge reported separately.

“Surveys are not permitted to be used as a means of collecting identifiable employee data without following the usual process to obtain this data from the People team,” the Tim Cook-led company wrote.

Price Action: On Tuesday, Apple shares closed nearly 0.8% lower at $151.83.

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