Apple employee quits over alleged Islamophobia, mental harassment

An Indian Muslim man working at Apple claimed that he faced Islamophobia and mental harassment after which he decided to quit his job, an Indian website Free Press Journal reported.

This controversy came just a couple of months after Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook made headlines for launching Apple stores in India. 

In a grand ceremony, Cook personally hosted the impressive inaugurations of Apple's stores in Mumbai and Delhi in April this year, offering the tech giant's employees a whopping INR100,000 salary.

The company also boasts its inclusive policies catering for diversity and underrepresented minorities, as well as fair pay practices.

However, Khalid Parvez — one of Apple's employees in India — has resigned, citing mental harassment, abusive language, managerial errors, and Islamophobic comments as reasons behind his departure from the company, which came after his complaints were dismissed.

In a LinkedIn post, Parvez expressed gratitude for the growth opportunities provided by Apple but also criticised the lack of compassion from the company's human resources department, who asked him to trust the system during their investigation.

"But after 2 months of supposedly 'thorough' investigation the #employeerelations comes back with nothing but denial, insensitivity, counter accusations and ended up ridiculing my mental health and family issues," he mentioned in his post.

The former Apple employee tagged Tim Cook and the company in his post to draw their attention towards his complaint after being dismissed by the team in India.

Counter-allegations and insensitivity from Apple's employee relations team followed, according to Parvez, who has been working for the Cook-led corporation for the last decade.

He claimed his mental health concerns were ridiculed and accused the company of a cover-up instead of probing his complaints.

"When I asked about the Islamophobic comments — the ER said that none of my statements/incidents were substantiated by other employees. This is when I understood that there was never an investigation, this was some major corporate cover up," he wrote on LinkedIn.

Parvez warned professionals not to trust companies blindly and urged them to escalate issues beyond regional and national management.

"The only reason why I am calling out these #hypocrites is to convey a message to my fellow #Apple Colleagues and all my fellow corporate victims. Please don't be afraid to ask questions, please raise your voice whenever you see discrimination, misconduct, any kind of abuse or bullying - DON’T TRUST THE SYSTEM BLINDLY like I did (at least don't trust the local system). Please escalate. Escalate beyond the regional/national teams. And please document each and everything," he wrote in his post.