Apple unfairly sacked ‘Genius’ over Covid joke at Chinese colleague
Apple unfairly sacked a “Genius” repair worker after he made a Covid joke to a Chinese colleague, an employment tribunal has ruled.
Timothy Jeffries was sacked in February last year after he said to a departing teammate: “See you in nine months ... as long as you lot don’t release another deadly disease on the world”.
The colleague, Ran Liu, was Chinese and the joke was taken as a reference to the origins of Covid-19 in the city of Wuhan.
However, an employment tribunal has now ruled that Apple was wrong to dismiss Mr Jeffries.
The sacked worker successfully argued that what Apple referred to as racial “banter” was common at the London shop where he worked and the iPhone-maker was wrong to claim there was a zero tolerance policy in place.
Judge Graham Hodgsen found there were “significant deficiencies” in Apple’s investigation into the incident and said the tech giant failed to properly enforce its bullying and harassment rules.
Mr Jeffries, who worked at Apple’s shop in White City, west London, was friends with Ms Liu and she did not complain about the incident.
However, Mr Jeffries was reported by his manager and subjected to disciplinary action.
Mr Jeffries, who had worked at Apple for 13 years as one of its “Genius” repair staff, claimed that “racial stereotypes were often joked about within the Genius Bar team” and that his colleague would “understand the joke intended”.
He was found to have been remorseful about the remark and admitted it could be seen as “vile and offensive” if taken out of context.
Apple sacked Mr Jeffries after his managers insisted he had broken a “zero tolerance” policy on racial discrimination.
‘Zero tolerance policy did not exist’
However in his ruling, Judge Hodgsen found that no such policy was in place. He wrote: “No reasonable employer would dismiss somebody by relying on the application of a zero tolerance policy which does not exist.
“If Apple wishes to impose a zero tolerance policy that is for Apple to consider and justify.”
As well as sacking Mr Jeffries, Apple launched an investigation into the culture of its Genius Bar in White City in 2023.
In an email, one senior manager told staff: “Any language used or conduct that singles out a group of people for their protected characteristics e.g. race, sexuality, religion etc is not considered ‘banter’.
“Unfortunately the nature of banter that we’ve become aware of, does not foster positive, mutually respectful and inclusive culture.”
Judge Hodgsen found there was “ample evidence that there was a culture in the repair room which embraced explicit language and some jokes which may be considered inappropriate, whether they referred to race or other sensitive issues”.
Mr Jeffries said, according to Bloomberg: “No other employee should need to endure the substantial failures in due process, which I encountered as a result of managers simply not understanding the company’s policies and their relationship with UK employment law.”
Apple was contacted for comment.
