Lawyers for former Apple employee cite ‘vulgar’ working environment amid unfair dismissal complaint

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

Lawyers have argued that an alleged “informal and somewhat vulgar working environment” at tech giant Apple meant a worker should not have been sacked after a colleague complained about him talking about “tramps” and “whores” in Portuguese.

Under cross-examination, a manager at Apple questioned whether another worker referring to the complainant as a “fluffy puffy” could be compared to someone being called a “whore”.

The employee, Vinicius dos Santos, was sacked for gross misconduct from his €55,000-a-year job as a legal specialist at the tech giant’s offices in Cork last May.

Apple Distribution International Ltd began its defence of Mr dos Santos’s complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Wednesday.

The tribunal heard Mr dos Santos worked on a team of Portuguese-speaking contractors and staff in the company’s privacy department handling requests for data held on Apple devices from courts and police in Brazil.

Paul Crowley, an Apple employee relations manager, gave evidence that in December 2024, he was informed that one of the team, fellow legal specialist Robertha Abreu, had complained about “inappropriate remarks”.

There were 18 separate issues raised in Ms Abreu’s five-page grievance against Mr dos Santos, addressing a period going back to July 2024, including “very concerning remarks around very gender-based slurs”, Mr Crowley said.

One incident raised by Ms Abreu was that Mr dos Santos had used “derogatory, dehumanising language” towards a female contract worker on the team by calling her “this thing” and “this dumb one” in Portuguese, the witness said.

Ms Abreu added in her complaint that she heard Mr dos Santos state on another occasion: “Before we hired these things, actual useful, intelligent and competent people used to work on the team,” the investigator added. Ms Abreu wrote that Mr Dos Santos was talking about her and the contractor again.

On another occasion around September 2024, Ms Abreu accused Mr dos Santos of referring to her and the contractor as “vagabundas” and “putas” – words in Portuguese translating to “tramps” and “whores”, the investigator added.

On that occasion, Ms Abreu wrote that she “confronted” Mr dos Santos and that he “tried to deflect and said [he] hadn’t meant it towards [her] specifically,” she added.

The 17th complaint in Ms Abreu’s grievance was that when she asked Mr dos Santos for help with her workload, he told her: “Well, aren’t you the badass? Don’t you want to do everything? Well I’m sticking everything in your ass now; it’s your battle.”

Arthur Cush BL, appearing instructed by solicitor Barry Kenny for the complainant, put it to Mr Crowley in cross examination that Mr dos Santos’s team was “regularly engaging with each other with inappropriate comments”.

“I don’t know about regularly,” Mr Crowley said.

In response to Mr Crowley’s draft report, Mr dos Santos had sent him screenshots of messaging between him and the female contract worker.

“She called Mr dos Santos a f****t in Portuguese,” Mr Crowley said. He said there had been “some discussion with the agency” employing the contract worker and she was “no longer working with Apple” within weeks of the process concluding.

Mr Cush said he didn’t think the contract worker meant any offence by the remark and argued it pointed to “a relaxed, informal and somewhat vulgar working environment”.

He put it to Mr Crowley that management had been dealing with a group of “Portuguese speakers, who among friends, use vulgar language”. Mr Crowley said his focus was on Ms Abreu’s complaints.

“This language being directed towards her made her feel uncomfortable and it was uncomfortable as far as she was concerned,” he said. She was “well entitled” not to want such language used around her or directed at her, Mr Crowley added.

Questioned on whether “any other inappropriate language on that team” had come to light, Mr Crowley said the complainant’s legal team had taken “exception” to a remark by one worker interviewed in the company probe.

“He’s a fluffy puffy, very nice guy, I’ve never seen him talking inappropriately, he just talks a lot,” the worker was quoted as telling the investigation.

“Did it ring alarm bells, ‘fluffy puffy’?” Mr Cush asked.

Mr Crowley said it was not a term he had heard before and that it “seemed to be a term of endearment”.

“You’d accept that its evidence that terms that appear to be entirely inappropriate appear to be thrown around among Portuguese speakers?” Mr Cush said.

“Are you trying to compare someone being called a whore to being called a ‘fluffy puffy’?” Mr Crowley said.

“But what about a f****t?” Mr Cush asked.

“I agree it’s completely inappropriate, but as I said, steps were taken to address that,” Mr Crowley said.

Mr Crowley recommended the matter go forward to a disciplinary process, which was chaired by Aidan Buckley.

Mr Buckley decided immediate dismissal for gross misconduct for breaches of the company bullying and harassment policy and its business conduct policy were in order – a sanction upheld on appeal.

Adjudication officer Úna Glazier-Farmer has adjourned the case and said she would hear the evidence of Mr Dos Santos and Ms Abreu on the next scheduled hearing date.