UK alleges that Apple badly dismissed a worker who allegedly took intimate photos of a coworker.

Apple’s UK headquarters is located in the iconic Battersea Power Station.
A UK employment tribunal has ruled Apple must compensate an employee it fired over alleged harassment against a female co-worker. The incident occurred at Apple’s London Battersea headquarters, which also houses an Apple Store. According to The Telegraph, process analyst Christoph Sieberer shared two photos of a female colleague with a male coworker who had a crush on the woman. The woman was photographed talking to colleagues in one image, and another was taken three floors above from a communal area. Thomas, a male colleague who only reported as Thomas, responded “that’s her.” He also said: “Look at bae… so cute… she’s working her a** off and still looking great.” Thomas, a colleague who was only identified as Thomas by Apple, showed one of the pictures to another Apple employee. She notified her manager and, after an investigation, Apple fired both Thomas and Sieberer due to sexual harassment. A UK Employment Tribunal ruled that Apple fired Sieberer in an unfair manner. Judge N. Walker ruled that there were “no reasonable grounds” to dismiss Sieberer, and that there was no proof that anyone who viewed the photos had been hurt. It’s unclear on what basis Judge Walker determined that the woman who reported these images was not offended. Apple’s harassment policy was also criticized by the judge as “vague”. Judge Walker ruled, that taking the photos “was arguably an invasion of private space… in a world where there are cameras everywhere,” The ruling states that the photos should not have taken. Sieberer is said to have admitted that he shouldn’t have taken the photographs. Apple will be required to pay a certain amount of damages that will be determined by the tribunal at a later date. The amount of the damages is not known, but the court ruling made a comment that was unclear. Apple wanted to reduce Sieberer’s compensation by 100% in the court ruling, which would imply that it would pay him absolutely nothing. The court has ruled that his salary should be reduced by 10%. Apple does not seem to be required to re-hire Sieberer. Therefore, the implication is damages will be in some measure tied to his salary. Thomas is not owed any damages. Apple has not publicly commented on this ruling. Apple did inform the tribunal during the case that it had changed policies on harassment in response to over a dozen women’s complaints. It is not known what specific complaints were made, but the #AppleToo campaign began publishing harassment reports in 2021. The movement received more than 500 reports in the first four days after it called for them.