Wayne Goodrich, a former Apple employee who produced and coordinated the company’s hugely popular keynote presentations, is suing the Cupertino company for wrongful termination after he was fired for “business reasons” — despite being promised job security by former CEO Steve Jobs.
After spending 13 years at Apple, Goodrich was reportedly fired by the company back in December for reasons not connected to his performance. But according to a complaint filed on August 17 in San Jose, California, Steve Jobs promised Goodrich his job was safe back in 2005.
“This express promise by Steve Jobs was consistent with a practice that Steve Jobs had, acting on behalf of defendant Apple, of promising job security to certain key employees who worked directly with him for many years,” he said in the complaint.
In addition to being the executive producer of Apple’s keynotes, Goodrich claims that it was him who introduced Apple to the company behind Siri — the voice-controlled assistant that now comes pre-installed on the iPhone 4S, and will makes its debut on the new iPad with iOS 6 this fall.
Goodrich is now seeking damages for lost restricted stock units that were worth $97.40 a share in 2008 (and $635 a share on August 17), wages, benefits, and emotional distress. His lawyer claims in the suit that Apple discharged Goodrich to avoid paying him that restricted stock.
Source: Bloomberg
Via: AppAdvice
