Those claims form the basis of a federal government charge accusing the Cupertino iPhone giant of illegally “interfering with, restraining and coercing employees” exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act to help each other with workplace issues.

Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the administrative complaint, filed Oct. 31 by the National Labor Relations Board.

The legal action by Scarlett – the former employee – and the agency that enforces the Labor Relations Act also claims that Apple denied an employee’s request to create an internal-messaging channel about pay equity, telling the worker the messaging platform was only for business purposes – despite letting other employees use it for non-business topics.