“At least two Apple Inc retail store workers complained directly to Chief Executive Tim Cook that the company’s policy of checking retail employees’ bags as a security precaution was embarrassing and demeaning, according to a court filing made public on Wednesday,” Dan Levine reports for Reuters.
“The employee complaints, which a judge ordered unsealed, are part of a 2013 lawsuit alleging Apple should compensate employees for the time it takes to conduct the searches. One worker, whose name was blacked out of the court filing, told Cook in a 2012 message that Apple managers ‘are required to treat ‘valued’ employees as criminals,'” Levine reports. “Cook forwarded it to top retail and human resources executives with the query: ‘Is this true?’ The court filing does not include what responses Cook received.”
“A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last December, in a case involving an Amazon.com Inc warehouse contractor, handed a victory to employers, ruling that companies do not have to pay employees for the time they spend undergoing security checks at the end of their shifts,” Levine reports. “The Supreme Court found that because screening process is not a “principal activity” of the workers’ jobs under a federal labor law it is not subject to compensation.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Unfortunately, policies like this do not arise out of the blue. There is a reason why bag checks have to be conducted. Ah, if only we lived in a world where everyone was taught, and learned, right from wrong and lived moral lives.
That said, there must be a way to conduct these bag checks out of view of customers and as quickly as possible. Apple would do well to remember that the vast majority of these bag checks are being conducted on loyal employees who are not thieves.
SEE ALSO:
Judge dismisses Apple Store employee ‘bag check’ lawsuits following Supreme Court ruling – December 31, 2014
Apple Retail Store employee files class action lawsuit over lost wages due to bag searches – October 12, 2013
Apple retail workers file class action suit claiming lost wages over bag searches – July 29, 2013