The accessible bathroom doubled as a storeroom for years - Apple couldn't prove that was reasonable
The accessible toilet at Apple's Canberra store doubled as a storeroom - and that has cost the tech giant $18,000.
The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal handed down its decision on August 31, finding Apple Pty Ltd indirectly discriminated against an employee with a bowel disability by maintaining bathroom arrangements that disadvantaged him at its Civic store.
The employee, who worked as a specialist at the store from September 2019 until his resignation in March 2024, had a condition that required him to use the toilet up to ten times a day, often with sudden urgency.
The store had three staff toilets in its back-of-house area - two standard self-contained cubicles and one larger accessible toilet. The problems, as the tribunal found them, stacked up around that accessible bathroom.
A large floor cleaning machine was stored inside it, at one point obstructing access to the hand towel dispenser. A cleaning cupboard sat behind it, meaning cleaners had to walk through the accessible toilet to reach their supplies - and at times propped both doors open while they did so. Other staff used the accessible toilet as a change room. And with around 30 to 40 workers on shift at any given time sharing three toilets, the employee sometimes had to wait.
He raised the issues early. A few weeks after starting in late 2019, he told a manager about his condition and asked for the...
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