“Former retail employees from Apple Stores in New York and Los Angeles have formed a class action suit against the iPhone maker, claiming that the company’s anti-theft policies amounted to unpaid work to the tune of $1,500 per employee per year,” Kevin Bostic reports for AppleInsider.
“The filing for the suit alleges that “Apple has engaged and continues to engage in illegal and improper wage practices that have deprived Apple Hourly Employees throughout the United States of millions of dollars in wages and overtime compensation,'” Bostic reports. “At the center of the plaintiffs’ case is the anti-theft procedure Apple requires its employees to go through.”
Bostic reports, “At the end of a shift, as well as when clocking out to leave for a meal break, Apple’s hourly retail employees must submit to ‘personal package and bag searches,’ during which the employees are off-the-clock. The complaint notes that these checks are ‘significant, integral, indispensable… and done solely for Apple’s benefit to prevent employee pilferage.’ As the employees were hourly and the checks only occurred when they were off the clock, they were not compensated for Apple’s security procedures. The complaint claims the employees waited typically between 10 and 15 minutes and the end of every shift, as well as another five without compensation prior to going off for ‘uncompensated meal breaks.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Logically, Apple should compensate their employees for time spent doing whatever Apple requires their employees to do.
They should be lucky to work for apple.
They could easily be replaced with volunteers
Dealing with the public is tough work regardless of the product.
Yeah uh.
They’re paid to stand and do nothing.
Apple products sell themselves
BS. There’s plenty of people with questions all the time. It’s not even all Apple products in the store, so staff need to know about those things too.
It’s called building a relationship with the customer that lasts beyond the immediate sale, and contrary to what MBAs and beancounters think, it actually does matter.
You probably also think Apple’s domestic phone support staff are paid to sit around and do nothing, because Apple products never have issues… and that they should consider themselves lucky to work for Apple, after all they could all be outsourced to India.
Uh, no that would be Microsoft Retail employees who stand and do nothing. Or they dance in the Window with there X-box games.
Apple Retail employees hardly have the time to stand and do nothing. Anyone who goes to an Apple store will see that.
Fuck you asshole! Nothing sells itself. Nothing. They are the best retail experience out there. I have never ever been disappointed in an Apple store. You clearly have your head up your ass.
Last time my 68 year old mother went to the apple store, she knew more about what was wrong with her computer than the geniuses, and what’s worse is she was the only one there when knew how to fix it (bad system installer, just needed an incorrupt one), all they wanted to do was sell her a new harddrive that had to admit she didn’t actually need. But they still kept trying to sell it to her, maybe that was to male up for the fact that they didn’t know what they were doing.
So, your grandmother new more about what was wrong AND new how to fix it…. but brought it into the Apple geniuses that didn’t know how? That sounds believable.
Very true that but dealing with employees is even tougher.
Yeah, uh I guess you’ve never worked for Apple then huh? It was a really fun place to work for maybe up until 4 or 5 years ago. Apple has really become the it’s own disdain and it’s not worth the money they pay in the retail store. And yes, Apple should be only doing any type of search of personal property while the employee is on the clock!
Most companies do this. Just proof that today’s millennial generation thinks they know best. What does it equate to? An extra 2 minutes per day? Sounds like excessive whining.
“What does it equate to? An extra 2 minutes per day?”
Can you type, but not read? The complaint states that it’s up to 1.5 hours per week. I don’t know if the complaint is true and accurate, but if it is, that sounds totally unreasonable and violation of employment law.
Having witnessed some SERIOUS shite in the workplace and DIRE abuse of employees by asshole management scum, I’m not convinced to have any vibes of sympathy here. This sort of childish complaining is where the management justifiably loses respect for the employee.
Find a SERIOUS issue against an employer and I’ll happily back you up.
Well the complaint is talking about employees who work 40 hours a week and make as little as just over $17K a year who are not getting paid as much as $1,500 over the year for their time because management has a poor inspection process for employees that doesn’t apply to customers.
If someone here posted any evidence that the statements in the complaint are invalid or untrue in anyway, that would be one thing, but I don’t see many people here saying they’d be willing to give up 8.7% of their income for their employer to have such an unreasonable search process.
The law is what it is, and if the complaints are true, than Apple has been violating labor laws.
I’ve stated my opinion. Now the courts will have to decide what to do with this frivolity.
And wait for it… The shock on their pathetic faces when they win and settlement, and that settlement is a $10 iTunes gift card. There should be a class action lawsuit against class action lawyers. The lawyers are the only one who ever get any cash in these things.
Completely agree. Anyone remember the iTunes gift card lawsuit? The $10 cards said get 10 songs, and when some songs went to $1.25, the CA lawyers sued, because you could no longer get 10 songs. This meant that everyone in the suit got about $1…. and they lawyers got millions.
Next up, corporate users of Windows instigate lawsuits against Microsoft for lost productivity due to having to install, update and run anti-virus software.
Then, Android users initiate lawsuits against Google and Samsung for making shitateaous software and hardware that don’t work as advertised wasting enormous numbers of hours installing ROMs and whatnot to make it work as advertised.
Doing anti-virus for Windows users is a feature.
This could open a can of worms.
In most businesses there is time when you are at work and not being. This is pretty common, security checks before and after work. I personally don’t get paid till I clock in (waiting 10 minutes till I can launch the time card program), and stop getting paid once I clock out even though I have to wait till I shut everything down before I can leave some times another 10 minutes and the program automatically takes off 30 minutes for lunch even though I work through lunch most days. that’s life.
How are people working in the Federal Reserves treated?
They’re rewarded, like any band of thieves, particularly under a socialist government intent on pump priming the economy on borrowed money that they assume doesn’t need to be paid back.
Yep.
Hey Balmers Left Nut…I used to respect you for your insightful takes on various subjects, but when you throw your “hissy fit” tantrums about our political system, you lose me, and I suspect a lot of other readers.
If you don’t like our country and our elected officials why not move somewhere else or just shut up.
We know what you are and what you represent. It does not belong on an Apple information site
Back to the subject.
If a lawsuit was started and the ex employees win, 95% of award goes for legal fees and expenses, 5% to agreived employees.
They should arrange to have Judge Koh
These things always work out for the lawyers, and not all that great for anyone else. When a class action lawsuit is settled, what good does it do to send $15.00 cheques to five or ten thousand people? It saves them lunch money for one day, and we’re expected to rejoice? The lawyers use their take to stage champagne-drenched orgies on their yachts. William Shakespeare had a solution.
It’s true the “rewards” for the actual plaintiffs are usually worthless or cheap enough to be meaningless, but the point of most class action lawsuits like this isn’t really to compensate the plaintiffs, but to punish the company for actions judged to be wrong/negligent and then hopefully prevent that from happening again.
At least that’s how I heard it described…
Quite right, excellent of you to point that out. I feel negligent in overlooking it.
Yes.
hannahjs,
I have a coffee mug with that Henry VI quote. 😆
My own mug says, “Just a little something to sip while I reflect upon my Overall Genius” .
A gift from my sister 🙂
This is true. I worked in Apple retail for 5 years. They expect a lot of their their workers and sometimes treat their staff like children. However most of the hourly workers are brighter and more educated that their managers who typically come from other retail stores like the Gap and Starbucks. The hourly workers were grossly underpaid when considering what they were expected to do and the knowledge base they had.
STFU you spoilt little sissy. When someone pays you to work you don’t tell them how to run their business. Grow up and get an independent life.
… are talking about? Bad enough you use sub-standard “English”, and dabble in childish name-calling that reflects more on who YOU are than who THEY are, but you have to tout theTeaParty line that “the employer is always right”? If you are NOT willing to pay your employees for their time, you should let them leave. Otherwise, you are stealing from them. Even a retarded Tea Puddler should recognize the truth there.
Sometimes you really wonder whether someone’s account has been compromised when they post decent comments some of the time, and then see such childish drivel come out of nowhere.
This is true. I worked in Apple retail for 5 years. They expect a lot of their workers and sometimes treat their staff like children. However most of the hourly workers are brighter and more educated than their managers who typically come from other retail stores like the Gap and Starbucks. The hourly workers were grossly underpaid when considering what they were expected to do and the knowledge base they had.
I can entirely sympathize with your points.
However, required security checks due to the criminal and kleptomaniacal behavior of the few does not equate to lawsuit. Spoiled little kids is my response to the bitchers. Get some perspective little kids.
Offer:
I’ll gladly sit you down and rant at you for hours about REAL horrors in the working world. Your whiny little hissy fit complaint about time lost to security searches does NOT compare or qualify. 😥
Having to wait 30-40mins for a bag/iOS serial number search when leaving the store at gone 10pm because the store will not pay for additional security at that time to speed up the process is fully within scope of this complaint.
Comparing what they are asking for and then telling people that other people in the world have it worse off – well golly gee Mr – really? So the next time some woman gets raped we can tell her that there are other people in the world worse off and she’s being a spoiled little kid?
Apply some thought to the actual in scope issue. other jobs and other situations that are not comparable are not relevant.
Yes really, spoiled little children.
Meanwhile, your desperately stupid and obscene equalization of this subject with rape will NEVER be appreciated by anyone. See a doctor please.
Fuckem. Asswhining babies are union turdbabies.
Your a fucking moron.
Apple stores are not union
The rest however is spot on 🙂
Sadly, just another note in the Symphony of unfair labor practices that keep the rich very rich, and the poor, continuing to struggling to get by.
The cure: Make them all salaried (aka ‘exempt’) employees instead of hourly employees (aka ‘non-exempt’). Now STFU and act like professionals. (o_0)
Sheesh. Seeing as EVERY JOB I EVER HAD involved similar additional time, I’m afraid I have zero sympathy. I was simply glad when I had a job as well as allowed by the management to do it well, aka have job satisfaction. Bitch about security? I don’t think so.
Derek,
In almost every state there is a distinct difference between the legal concept of hourly versus salaried and non-exempt versus exempt. In many states you can be hourly exempt or even salaried non-exempt. Salaried is absolutely not tied to exempt nor is hourly tied to non-exempt.
Making every Apple Store employee salaried-exempt would not be allowed under the labor laws of most states. The laws do not support that kind of part time, ad hoc, “on call, if available and willing” kind of employment under the salaried-exempt rules.
I don’t wee this as an answer at all.
However, I also have very little sympathy for these individuals — and absolutely zero agreement with their lawyers.
From my farm days working as a young teenager to my first non farm job (dishwasher at a restaurant) and many, many since, I’ve almost always had to do certain tasks *before* I was “on the clock”. That first teenager job as a dishwasher required me to show up, check in with the restaurant manager, then go to the locker room (if it could be called that) and get a newly cleaned uniform and then change. Then I could check in. The process typically took about 10 minutes — off the clock. After the shift was over — after I clocked out — I changed, put away my “dirty” uniform then checked with the manager before going home. Another 5-10 minutes. I was not allowed to wear the uniform off the premises so if I went somewhere else for lunch I had to change into my street clothes before going and back into my uniform before starting work again.
It would not surprise me if even to this day many restaurants that have a “uniform” of some kind have similar requirements. Are all those restaurant workers supposed to sue their employers for all that lost time? I certainly hope not!
The laws do not support that kind of part time, ad hoc, “on call, if available and willing” kind of employment under the salaried-exempt rules… I don’t see this as an answer at all.
I know. Thank you for pointing that out. I was being a little too liberal with my factiousness.
But for me, the concept of the salaried laborer is how I like to work. I want to get the job done well and deal with all the fiddly bits along the way, not be anal retentive about how many pennies I make every minute. It’s the difference between being professional and being a disinterested wage earner. –I know it’s rarely that simple. But it’s a concept I prefer.
This is nothing but ambulance-choicing (or should I say Appleance-chasing?) lawyers finding another reason to sue Apple. These kids would never have done this on their own. And, as I said before, they will be livid when they see this costing Apple millions, the lawyers walking away with millions, judges getting their paychecks, and the plaintiffs getting an iTunes gift card.
Have *any* of you worked at a place where there is an entrapment or two? Probably not. I have.
You go through some security procedure (typically swiping your badge and entering a code into a keypad — or placing your hand on a reader and speaking a pass phrase into a microphone) then enter a small area typically only big enogh to hold one person. You have to wait there for a short while. Then you repeat the procedure with a different code or voiced pass phrase. IF everything checks out you get out of the room. IF anything (virtually *anything*) is odd or off, security keeps you in the entrapment until they figure out what to do with you.
Often after you get through the entrapment all your possessions (bags, backpacks, briefcases {yes, I’m that old], etc.) are searched. Sometimes you get a quick pat down.
A couple of sites (not in the U.S.) in which I’ve worked have had a couple different entrapments separated by a short hall — and you had to go through both entrapments to get into the facility itself.
On the way out you get to do it all again in reverse.
There are many government sites (not just U.S. Government sites, as I can personally state) that have these entrapments. There are even several commercial companies of which I am personally aware that have these at certain locations.
My point? Even the hourly cleaning staff have to go through them. And I’ve asked a few of them as to when they officially “clock in” and start getting paid and “clock out” and their pay stops. Every single person I’ve asked (and the “n” is a few dozen at several different sites) has said they can’t clock in until they get through all the security checks and must clock out before they go through the security checks on the way out. Every. Single. One.
If Apple loses this suit then the entire industry relying on these entrapments and security procedures will have to change how they account for hourly personnel’s time.
If Apple loses this I expect there will be either lawsuits (costs will go up and/or productivity will go down) or new laws written into the books to cover this.
And besides…
Who says you have to bring your backpack or whatever to work? It’s the employee’s choice to do so. I’ve read nothing in Apple’s Policies and Procedures that requires employes to bring a bag/backpack/whatever into the Apple Store where they work.
You do not get paid to travel to work or to home. The security procedures are part of the travel aspect. You are expected to be able to work on time. Therefore the discrepancy.
As you said. If you came to work, without a phone, and without a bag or purse, then you could leave sooner with just a pat down. I think they should say, “All those without any bags or phones, can leave first,” would be a good incentive.
If Apple had a locker for each employee, I would leave personal items in the locker and not carry all that stuff. Maybe have a non-apple phone, to avoid the SN check.
Look, if you want to be an Apple employee, much like a person to travels by air, you “optimize” your procedures to minimize effect.
Leave it to the lawyers to come up with class action suits that just line their pockets. Even if this is legitimate, how much do you think each employee will get after the lawyers get their cut?
Lawyers spend their time dreaming up cases against large corporations that will pay to make things go away. To bad there isn’t a law to charge the law firm with something, like maybe blackmail.
If you are employed at a building that has a security check in the lobby, as do many government buildings, is it the responsibility of the employers in the building to provide clocks for clocking in/out before/after their employees have gone through security? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that done. In what way is this different?
It is a grey area. The difference between “being at work” and “getting to work”.
Apple should start to use it’s massive massive cash horde to class the place up. Hire only the best for Apple retail, pay very well, but expect nothing but exceptionalism. Apple retail employees have a bit of a history or complaining, and probably for some very legitimate reasons. Apple should remove that claim.
Something is fishy here…
10 and 15 minutes at the end of every shift, but only another five prior to going off for ‘uncompensated meal breaks.’. Why would it take 10-15 minutes at the end of a shift but only 5 during break time. This is complete horse shit! I was a Manager at Apple. It takes 10-20 seconds to open your bag & show a manager. When most employees are going off shift or on break there are 3 to 5 managers in the typical store at any time. And BTW all managers (except store leaders) are non-exempt hourly and have to follow the same procedure. FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT!
If you were like my managers at my apple store,… your an asshole like they all were. Two faced fake pos..
I put in two years as an expert, anyone that has not worked at a store and slams apples hard working overs tresses specialists and experts as well as the family room staff are all fools. It’s the hardest job I have ever done and turned my love for apple into the most hated season of my life. It is working for peanuts and sucking up constantly for crappy rude retail customers and not able to even got to the bathroom without a manager getting uptight. Apple retail is hell.
I think they should stop it all together. That sounds awful. Anyway, this is in the US. I don’t know if this would even be legal I EU or in Sweden.