Apple HQ, Cork

Even among those employees who were concerned by the ethics of the programme, there has been anger about how the job losses have proceeded.

“I’m relieved this information came out,” said one former contractor who asked to remain anonymous due to a still-active non-disclosure agreement, “although I was involved in the work and I just lost my job. Discussions around ethics in this job was a constant between workers, but we don’t know how to bring it up.”

But, they added, “Apple, recruiting through vendor companies in Ireland, take absolutely no responsibility in the employment of contractors and their treatment in work.

They do what they want, and when they’re done with your project or they screw up (like what just happened), they tell your vendor company to let you go, which they do … It’s been coming at them for over a year.

How could they not see this coming? Did they think about protecting their employees at all? Or just their reputation?”

“We’ve all been laid off after the scandal, with no protection against this. More than 300 at once just in Cork, with no redundancy, just one week’s notice.”

Meanwhile…

“It is not acceptable that workers can be made unemployed with no notice given and then paid off with just one weeks’ pay. Apple are responsible for the position these workers find themselves in and Apple cannot just turn their backs and ignore the workers’ plight.”

Solidarity Cork North Central TD Mick Barry

Hundreds of Cork-based Apple contractors lose jobs after hearing Siri users private conversations (The Journal)

Apple ends contracts for hundreds of workers hired to listen to Siri (Guardian)

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23 thoughts on “Rotten

  1. eoin

    If I understand this story correctly, Apple in Cork hired a whole army of contractors to listen in on covert recordings by Siri which included people bumping uglies and other intimate moments. Now that Apple has been found out, Apple has dropped the project altogether because of the public backlash [not so much in Ireland because it hasn’t crept onto the agenda].

    The problem now is Apple’s employment practices, engaging people as contractors and now telling them there’s no work. So, not only are Apple privacy hoodlums, they’re employment scumbags as well. Is that about it.

    1. Dhaughton99

      I was listening to it on the news at one on RTE and never mentioned the 300 lay offs. Even the Guardian reported it yesterday. If 300 jobs were created and you’d have Longball Leo smiling with an IDA grant for them in his hand. Not worth reporting because they are not really classed as jobs?

  2. B9 Com From No

    Maybe don’t take a job like this in the first place – to channel my inner Ron what sort of filth would take a role like this? What the fupp did you expect?

    Where is individual personal ethics?

    Absolutely zero sympathy here. Shame on BS for giving this subgroup a platform..

    1. Ron

      Please don’t channel anything to do with me. There is something wrong with you and I don’t want to take any risks in case I catch it.

    1. Optimus Grime

      Ha that made me laugh! What song would accompany the VT? I’m thinking something by Ariana Grande

  3. Lilly

    I wish some kind person would research and draw up a list of ethical companies and charities to make it easier for us to decide who to buy from, who to work for and who to donate to.

    Personally, nothing would persuade me to work for one of the American multinationals. I get itchy just going into Google. No one tells you lots of their meeting rooms have no natural light. Give me a window over free coffee any day of the week.

    1. MaryLou's ArmaLite

      Why don’t the rooms have natural light?

      I work for an American multinational, our rooms have natural light, we have free coffee and we don’t have to snoop on people or listen to their nocturnal activities. They ain’t all bad.

    2. Cian

      If the choice is natural light at your desk or natural light in a meeting room – I’d choose the natural light at my desk.

    3. Hector Ramirez

      If we need a list of ethical charities… just shut the country down, let’s all move and start again

  4. Increasing Displacementg

    Newsflash: contractors pissed at contract ended due to change of circumstances.

    I’m not justifying it…I’m just saying

Comments are closed.

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