Apple will continue to pay contract Apple Park workers, including janitors and drivers

Posted:
in General Discussion edited March 2020
Janitors and other contracted hourly workers at Apple Park will continue to be paid throughout the coronavirus pandemic, with Apple ensuring that they will get their wages despite contractor announcements that jobs would be suspended.




In early March, Apple advised it would continue to provide full wages to retail and service employees affected by store closures around the world, prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. While this has led to Apple Park employees working from home with their usual pay intact, it seems that contractors working at the Cupertino campus were not subject to the same measures.

The Wall Street Journal reports hundreds of contract workers were informed over the weekend by firms contracted by Apple that their jobs were suspended without pay and health-care benefits. The suspensions were due to reduced numbers of employees working in Apple's offices, because of the work-from-home policy.

According to Denise Solis of the SEIU United Service Workers West union, three-quarters of unionized janitors were informed of the suspensions over the weekend. Solis claims many workers had started preparations to file for unemployment on hearing the news of the suspensions.

While other tech companies including Facebook and Alphabet paid hourly contractors, the contractors were apparently told over the weekend that it wouldn't continue paying contractor wages. "We were really taken aback," Solis said.

Apple spokeswoman Kirstin Huguet informed the report on Monday that the pay would continue for janitors.

"We're working with all of our suppliers to ensure hourly workers such as janitorial staff are being paid during this difficult time," Huguet said. She added that she wasn't aware why some contractors were informed of the suspensions.

Unionized bus drivers were also undergoing a similar problem, with shuttle service providers WeDriveU and Hallcon Corp informing drivers 100 of them would be laid off over the course of the week.

Contractors billed Apple at the end of the month, but were apparently unwilling to take the risk of paying staff without a guarantee that Apple would reimburse the firms, Teamsters vice president Stacy Murphy suggested. "Apple was being non-responsive about it, pushing it off," said Murphy.

Apple again told the report the drivers would continue to be paid, with transportation service Lux Bus America offered as an example of its payments. Lux Bus CEO Matt Brown confirmed Apple committed to paying the wagers of 140 people working for the contractor, and that the firm was told to continue billing as usual.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    I would certainly hope so. Being one of the world's wealthiest companies and not paying your janitors are not a good look, so good for them.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    For a contrast to this great example of what multi-million/billion dollar companies should be doing, I'll leave it to you to look up Hobby Lobby, also making headlines...
    StrangeDaysdewme
  • Reply 3 of 8
    JanNLJanNL Posts: 327member
    It's easy to say: "It's easy for such a wealthy company to continue to pay contract workers". So please don't.
    edited March 2020
  • Reply 4 of 8
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    I would certainly hope so. Being one of the world's wealthiest companies and not paying your janitors are not a good look, so good for them.
    They’re not Apple janitors. 
    They work for another company which Apple pays to supply janitors. 
    The company the janitors work for is not paying the janitors. 
    So Apple has stepped in to pay janitors who don’t actually work for them. 

    No idea why you think being the world’s wealthiest company has anything to do with it. There are companies almost as rich doing nothing, and companies nowhere as rich doing what they can. 

    buttesilverStrangeDaysdewmecornchip
  • Reply 5 of 8
    Yeah, it should say "Apple will continue to pay for these services" in hopes that the workers are retained and paid...good on them.  We don't see much of this out there, but then again, there are only a few companies that went above the $1T mark.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    scatzscatz Posts: 30member
    Well, for what it is worth, i'm an old enough guy to remember when all the cleaners (janitors) and many others were employees of the global company i worked for. Outsourcing just pleased the accountants by moving lots and lots of employees off the payroll into a different cost centre that they didn't have to think about any more. It moved people from being personnel to resources. Maybe people should think about that for a minute. Funny that 30 years later, companies are beginning to rename resources people, if that's not ironic... what is ?

    Personally i applaud this decision and hope more companies move the same way.


    StrangeDays
  • Reply 7 of 8
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    In some cases it may be better for employees to be laid off so they can collect unemployment instead of a pay cut. I may be wrong but I  the think stimulus legislation includes enhanced unemployment payments for weeks or months. Assuming these contract workers will get their full paycheck would mean that Apple has worked out some kind of agreement with the contracting companies.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Yeah, it should say "Apple will continue to pay for these services" in hopes that the workers are retained and paid...good on them.  We don't see much of this out there, but then again, there are only a few companies that went above the $1T mark.
    The AI article was worded awkwardly but after looking at the WSJ piece that was the AI source it looks like that either there was an initial misunderstanding or a change of heart. The contracting companies had understood from Apple they would no longer pay those contract employees, services no longer needed. Apple has now made it clear that they will continue paying them at least for the time being. 
    edited March 2020 buttesilver
Sign In or Register to comment.