The Apple Store’s policy to check employees backpacks after they check out from work has been turned into a class-action lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco certified the case as a class-action on Thursday, after former employees sued Apple for conducting the bag searches at the company’s 52 retail stores in California.
The case has been in the works since 2013 when a group of employees filed a lawsuit against the iPhone-maker, claiming Apple’s ‘personal package and bag search’ policy causes staff to stand around for 5 to 15 minutes every time they clock out for the day, or leave on a lunch break. Apple workers claim they’re being shorted around $1,500 a year in unpaid wages while waiting around.
Two Apple retail store workers complained directly to Tim Cook that the policy was embarrassing, demeaning, and in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. According to court documents obtained by Reuters, one worker told Cook in a 2012 message that Apple managers “are required to treat ‘valued’ employees as criminals.”
The class-action case now includes more 12,000 members comprised of current and former employees.
By certifying the lawsuit as a class action, plaintiffs now have more leverage to negotiate a settlement. Apple argued in court that the case wasn’t fit for class action status because not all store managers conducted bag searches to check for stolen merchandise, and those searches only took a small amount of time which doesn’t deserve compensation.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
9 responses to “Class-action suit targets Apple’s bag-search policy”
Best Buy here in Canada does the same thing drove me nuts when I clock out at 10pm and have to wait 15 minutes for a manager to come and check my bag and unlock the door. Happened every day to every employee.
Imagine that, I heard about it myself (I live in Montreal) But it is illegal for someone to search your personal bags without your permission, and firing you for that is also illegal. They can’t even refuse you the job when you apply if you refuse to sign that paper as it would be illegal to do so.
An electronics store I worked in as a teenager back in the early 80’s also had this policy until we all just started leaving without letting the manager check anything. When the store threatened to fire us we all just quit en masse. The next day the manager called each of us at home to tell us the policy was no longer going to be used and we could all come back to work.
This is super common at most retail stores. I managed a music store when I was younger, and we had employees steal from us a lot. We also didn’t get paid for it, but it took less than a minute.
Why the hell does it take them so long?! My employees clock out, walk up to me, show me their bag and they’re gone.
Unfortunately this policy is needed. The majority of theft comes from employees.
Exactly, apple should have enforced a rule that made it faster to have bags checked. This way you keep employees happy and prevent any thefts. At verizon we caught the cleaning crew stealing phones from the back room.
The only thing this proves is how utterly stupid the legal system has become in the US. Any judge worth his salt wouldn’t even entertain such a ridiculous claim.
Well it violates their 4rth amendment rights. So they are entitled to a lawsuit or an action class to force the company to stop these practices. There’s enough camera’s into those stores (and most retail stores) that can be looked at if someone is suspected of theft and used against the person if theft there was that a personal search (yes searching a bag is considered a personal search) without a warrant or the express approval (without being coerced by threats of being fired or not getting the job in the first place, both illegal in the states and Canada) of the employee to do the search makes it illegal.
Depending on retail store’s policies, this policy can be found on page 216:
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0732991625