Tech giant Apple Inc is in the eye of a storm for "mishandling" complaints of sexual misconduct. More than a dozen current and former women employees have alleged that the company mishandled sexual misconduct complaints they had filed.

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According to a Financial Times report, the complainants alleged either being retaliated against or getting a disappointing or counterproductive response from the company.

While the iPhone maker has not issued an official statement on the FT report as yet, it told the newspaper that the company "works hard to investigate complaints of misconduct and said it would make changes to its training procedures".

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The FT story includes accounts of several complainants. One of them, Megan Mohr, alleged that a male colleague took her topless picture while she briefly fell asleep after a night out drinking together. The alleged incident was reported to Apple in 2018. However, the company allegedly told Megan that the accused "didn't violate any policy in the context of his work at Apple". Subsequently, she quit her job after 14 years at the company.

Another employee Jayna Whitt has penned a blog post in which she claims that her relationship with a fellow Apple attorney turned sour and even became "dangerous".

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She said that her colleague was "physically violent and emotionally abusive", but when she reported him to the company, Apple officials asked her to call the police if she felt unsafe. Whitt added that she was "reprimanded for allowing a personal relationship to interfere with her work" by Apple authorities.

Before Apple, game studio Activision Blizzard and Elon Musk's Tesla have also been rocked by #MeToo claims.

In December last year, six women sued Tesla, alleging that there was a "culture of sexual harassment" at Tesla's California-based plant and other facilities. They complained of "unwanted touching and catcalls" and retaliation against the complainants.

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