Apple curtailed work at its Silicon Valley campus amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Photo: Sam Hall/Bloomberg NewsHundreds of Apple Inc. contract workers at its Silicon Valley campus were told in recent days that their jobs would be suspended without pay as the tech giant curtails work at the offices amid the coronavirus outbreak. But on Monday, a company spokeswoman said Apple plans to pay the hourly workers.
The tech giant, which has more than $200 billion in cash and cash equivalents, has hundreds of contractors who work as janitors, bus drivers and perform other functions on its campus. Contractors representing about three-fourths of the unionized janitors began this weekend telling workers they would lose wages and health-care benefits, according to Denise Solis, SEIU-United Service Workers West, a union that represents about 11,000 janitors in Northern California.
Chief Executive Tim Cook had assured Apple employees in a March email that the company would continue to pay hourly workers even after closing its retail stores around the world. Mr. Cook didn’t specify whether Apple would pay hourly contract workers.
On Monday, in response to an inquiry from The Wall Street Journal, a spokeswoman said the janitors’ pay would continue. “We’re working with all of our suppliers to ensure hourly workers such as janitorial staff are being paid during this difficult time,” spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said after the Journal’s inquiry about the job elimination notices.
The unionized janitors make nearly $18 an hour plus about $10 in benefits, according to Ms. Solis. Collectively, that represents an estimated $35 million a year in total compensation for 600 workers. She said many of the workers had begun preparing to file for unemployment. On Monday night, janitorial contractors were still operating under the assumption their workers wouldn’t be paid, Ms. Solis said, but she was encouraged to hear that Apple had committed to paying them.
Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. have continued to pay hourly workers, including contractors such as janitors, said Ms. Solis. None have been under a misapprehension about whether they would be paid from any of the other companies, she said.
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“We were really taken aback,” Ms. Solis said, who said the janitorial contractors were told over the weekend by Apple that it wouldn’t continue to pay the workers.
Ms. Huguet, Apple’s spokeswoman, said she didn’t know why some contractors were told their jobs had been eliminated.
A janitor at Apple’s campus, Patricia Cortez, 38, said she was summoned to one of the company’s offices Sunday along with colleagues and told by her supervisor that her job had been eliminated and she wouldn’t be paid. The mother of four said the news was shocking and distressing.
She feared her family wouldn't have enough money to pay for food or bills without the income from Apple. “My whole livelihood depends on this job,” she said.
A similar situation has unfolded for unionized bus drivers who shuttled Apple workers to and from the company’s Cupertino campus. WeDriveU Inc. and Hallcon Corp., who manage shuttle service for Apple, this weekend notified the local Teamsters that about 100 drivers would be laid off over the next week because Apple hasn’t committed to paying those drivers, said Stacy Murphy, a Teamsters vice president.
“Apple was being nonresponsive about it, pushing it off,” Ms. Murphy said. She said the contractors bill Apple at the end of the month and were unwilling to risk paying staff without knowing Apple would reimburse them.
WeDriveU and Hallcon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apple said it would continue to pay drivers and connected the Journal with its largest transportation provider, Lux Bus America. The bus company’s Chief Executive Matt Brown said Apple committed in mid-March to paying the wages of about 140 drivers, maintenance and operations employees.
“We’ve been told to bill this month and future months,” said Mr. Brown, while adding that he doesn’t communicate with other transportation providers and couldn’t comment on Apple’s communication with them.
The elimination of the janitorial and drivers jobs would have added to the economic pain being felt by small businesses across the U.S. A record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment during the week ended March 21 as millions of small businesses cut staff after restaurants, retailers and shops closed to comply with government efforts to curtail the virus. President Trump recently signed a roughly $2 trillion stimulus package into law to try to aid the hardest hit.
“A loss of any income is devastating for these workers,” Ms. Solis said. “They live paycheck to paycheck.”
Apple has said previously that it continues to pay its hourly workers who work directly for the company, including retail employees and cafeteria staff. But janitors, parking attendants and landscapers work for independent contractors the company has hired for hourly wages.
Another contractor for a different group of hourly workers said the company has been asking Apple for more than a week if it would fulfill its commitment to continue paying those workers after letting them go. An Apple executive continually said the company would get an answer soon but still hasn’t provided one.
The delay has made it difficult for the contractor to tell employees if they should file for unemployment or look for other work. It has created anxiety among those workers, the contractor said.
Ms. Huguet didn’t immediately have a comment but reiterated that the company plans to pay hourly workers.
Other large, resource-rich institutions have been criticized for cutting pay to hourly workers amid the coronavirus crisis. Harvard University, which has a $40 billion endowment, faced pressure from students and employees to pay its subcontracted hourly workers through the end of the semester, which the school last week committed to doing.
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
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