Two employees of Apple Inc. in California have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. The plaintiffs claim that they are missing out on overtime pay because they are being subjected to bag checks. These searches are being performed in front of customers and after the workers are finished working.
The plaintiffs claim that they were held over after work so that these bag searches could be performed. This also happened each time the employees left Apple’s premises. An email had been allegedly written to the CEO concerning the searches. According to company policy, any work that was done after hours was not compensated, and the workers were asked to regularly stay after their shifts had finished so that the bag checks could be performed.
The search policy was put in place to deter employee theft, but the plaintiffs feel as if they are being treated like criminals instead of valued workers. The plaintiffs allege that these searches could take anywhere from 5-20 minutes per day. Apple officials contend that these searches only take a few seconds daily. A statement was also released from Apple stating that the bag searches were intended to be mandatory, but they were not consistently performed; therefore, the case should not be allowed class-action status.
The lawsuit originally filed by the California plaintiffs was dismissed in 2013, but a district court judge recently revived the case so that it could proceed. This class-action suit will encompass more than 12,000 past and present Apple workers. For their case, the plaintiffs are seeking $5 million to compensated for the lost overtime from the bag searches. The case will be headed to trial in the near future.
Source: bidnessetc.com, “Apple Inc. Faces Revived Class-Action Lawsuit Over Employee Bag Checks“, Martin Blanc, July 17, 2015