Apple must face sex bias lawsuit from janitorial service, California judge rules

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Apple must contend with a lawsuit that accuses it of canceling a janitorial services contract because the owner is a woman, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Credit: Apple
Credit: Apple


The original complaint, Industrial Janitorial Service v. Apple Inc, was lodged in a California state court in 2019 and accused the Cupertino-based company of sex bias in its decision to terminate its contract with the plaintiff.

In a tentative ruling Wednesday, California state court Judge Cynthia Lie ruled that the conduct alleged in the complaint was sufficient enough to allow the case to go to trial, Bloomberg reported.

According to the lawsuit, Apple paid $215,000 a month to have Industrial Janitorial Service clean about 40 Apple Store locations. In 2017, it cut that number to five stores and terminated its contract with the janitorial service.

The dispute began in mid-213, when Apple managers discovered the service was selling its unpaid invoices to a third-party broker. The lawsuit says that Apple was typically three to four months late in paying invoices.

When Apple staffers asked the owner of the service company, Darla Drendel, to come to Cupertino, she described their conduct as "rude and dismissive."

In later communications between Apple and Drendel's husband, an Apple manager allegedly referred to Drendel as "a typical woman in business" who "thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy."

In 2017, Drendel notified Apple that it paid $1.5 million in unpaid invoices. Apple then terminated the contract, the complaint said.

Although Judge Lie ruled that the janitorial service has sufficient facts to support claims of discriminatory business practices, she rejected other claims alleged in the complaint -- such as one that accused Apple of unlawfully breaching its contract.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
     :D You will NEVER make these people happy. 

    People who identify other people by gender, color, race, etc. will ALWAYS find SOMETHING wrong with whatever you did. Learn that lesson now. 
    mike1rcfa
  • Reply 2 of 13
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    That’s ludicrous on the face of it.
    rcfa
  • Reply 3 of 13
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Waiting to hear Apple’s side. And/or see any actual evidence. 
    hammeroftruth
  • Reply 4 of 13
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,275member
    jungmark said:
    Waiting to hear Apple’s side. And/or see any actual evidence. 

    Yep. That does seem very unlikely.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    Psh. Typical woman in business who thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy.

    Had she been a man this would be laughed at. Since it's a female she may win.
    edited August 2020 razorpit
  • Reply 6 of 13
    OferOfer Posts: 237unconfirmed, member
    Beats said:
    Psh. Typical woman in business who thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy.

    Had she been a man this would be laughed at. Since it's a female she may win.
    And the “misogynistic comment of the day” award goes to Beats. Congratulations! You must be so proud!
    ronnpulseimagesanomemontrosemacsgilly33
  • Reply 7 of 13
    rcfarcfa Posts: 1,124member
    Ofer said:
    Beats said:
    Psh. Typical woman in business who thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy.

    Had she been a man this would be laughed at. Since it's a female she may win.
    And the “misogynistic comment of the day” award goes to Beats. Congratulations! You must be so proud!
    His comment has hardly to do with misogyny, it’s a comment on how so called political correctness affects outcomes and perceptions in ways that are actually discriminatory.
    razorpit
  • Reply 8 of 13
    Beats said:
    Psh. Typical woman in business who thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy.

    Had she been a man this would be laughed at. Since it's a female she may win.
    Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.
  • Reply 9 of 13
    anomeanome Posts: 1,533member
    Beats said:
    Psh. Typical woman in business who thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy.

    Had she been a man this would be laughed at. Since it's a female she may win.
    Psh. Typical man on an internet message board who thinks he's clever, but is just another sad asshole repeating misogynist tripe.

    I'm almost certain had the plaintiff been a man, no-one would have referred to them as "Typical man in business..." yada yada.

    The thing is the statement is definitely misogynistic, and someone managing contracts for Apple should be smart enough not to say that sort of thing out loud, particularly to the husband of the person they're talking about. And that's my issue with the whole thing: why would an executive at Tim Cook's Apple, which is constantly being lambasted by commenters on this very board for "political correctness gone mad" and "prioritising demographics over ability", have actually said that?

    I see this playing out one of two ways. If they can produce correspondence with that exact wording in it, they will win. If it wasn't written correspondence, or if the wording is different to what is given above, or there is some kind of context that might shift the meaning (hard to see what it would be, though), there will be a long court case arguing over the actual meaning of what was said.

    As for the executive, I don't know if he has much of a future with Apple. Unless, as stated above, it can be proved that he didn't actually say what is alleged, he might be OK. But if he actually said that, I don't see him being employed by Apple for much longer. Or at the very least, he will spend a lot of time in HR training courses.
    Ofer
  • Reply 10 of 13
    OferOfer Posts: 237unconfirmed, member
    rcfa said:
    Ofer said:
    Beats said:
    Psh. Typical woman in business who thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy.

    Had she been a man this would be laughed at. Since it's a female she may win.
    And the “misogynistic comment of the day” award goes to Beats. Congratulations! You must be so proud!
    His comment has hardly to do with misogyny, it’s a comment on how so called political correctness affects outcomes and perceptions in ways that are actually discriminatory.
    Really?! He started by saying “Psh. Typical woman in business” which means he thinks women in business are typically pushy and not assertive. Please explain to me how that statement is not misogynistic.
    anomemicrobe
  • Reply 11 of 13
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 1,999member
    The real question is why Apple is late by 3-4 months on paying?
    microbe
  • Reply 12 of 13
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    chadbag said:
    The real question is why Apple is late by 3-4 months on paying?
    How do you know they are? Just because a plaintiff makes an accusation it doesn’t mean that it’s true. That’s why there is a court case. 
  • Reply 13 of 13
    Beats said:
    Psh. Typical woman in business who thinks she is assertive, but she's just pushy.

    Had she been a man this would be laughed at. Since it's a female she may win.
    Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.
    Yes, just like Goerring said to....
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