Apple Retail Employees File Class Action Lawsuit Over 'Bag Check' Lost Wages

[bungiefan89]

It will get thrown out. Employee is not required to bring personal property to the store. Factories have been doing this for decades at their gates.

This is what I thought at first but then, I thought about what I bring to my job.

Admittedly, I only volunteer at Habitat for Humanity these days, and that requires very little from me. There's no need to bring a backpack full of things, but I DO almost always bring a lunchbox... because it's better to make myself something at home than pay $4-7 every day for a meal.

So from the perspective of an Apple store employee, you're potentially faced with a choice between spending money on lunch every day, or having an unfairly short break for a meal.

 

[rhuber]

bottom line - 1 min no problem. 20 min possible problem.

Bottom line - "requiring" an hourly employee to do anything off the clock is illegal. Even 1 minute.

 

[otismotive77]

wasnt expecting this from a company like apple.

 

[ikramerica]

AND THAT CHECK SHOULD BE ON THE CLOCK! If not, then they can't require it.

And then the employees who don't bring bags will sue because they are forced to work 5 more minutes than the ones with the bags but get paid the same amount.
They would claim that they get to have 5 minutes break in lieu of bag check.
Then the bag check people would claim they are being denied a 5 minute break that non-bag carriers get.

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This is what I thought at first but then, I thought about what I bring to my job.

Admittedly, I only volunteer at Habitat for Humanity these days, and that requires very little from me. There's no need to bring a backpack full of things, but I DO almost always bring a lunchbox... because it's better to make myself something at home than pay $4-7 every day for a meal.

So from the perspective of an Apple store employee, you're potentially faced with a choice between spending money on lunch every day, or having an unfairly short break for a meal.

Not from what I understand. You can lock your bag in the break room. You can eat your lunch there. It doesn't require any checking. You lose no time.

It's the people who want to take lunch out and take their bag with them instead of keeping it locked in a locker that are being checked.

 

[beaniemyman]

sensible accusation, apple should solve this ASAP.

 

[Rico-Suave]

This case is more analogous to where someone sues the company for back pay because there was a traffic jam getting out of the company parking lot.

You must have been absent from school the day they taught analogies.

 

[Steve121178]

My employer's computers take soooo long to boot up. And I am forced to wait for them to load before I can clock in. Time to sue for 10 years of backpay.

Get to work earlier.

 

[youradhere4222]

Great way secure your place on the unemployable list. Who'd want to employ a clock-watching, troublemaker?

Admittedly, policies should ensure checks are done "on the clock".

I like how those two sentences completely contradict one another.

 

[egoistaxx9]

didnt knew apple had hourly employees.

 

[laurihoefs]

Well if you interpret it that way and that is your response to my post.

I dig.

I wish these people all the best, but the truth is there are worse things happening to innocent people in the world every second of every single day that don't see the light of any justice so - this is Mickey Mouse.

What 'I'm Saying' is this - strike one shame on me, strike two shame on you (I'm catching on to your bad company policy it's eating into my vacation pay), strike three I'm setting myself free bubye.

Is there more to the story that I'm not getting? Are these people under age and in a sweat shop or something?

Really?

So you are saying: Why bother fixing any problems at all, as there are always worse problems out there. Right..

 

[Pyrrhic Victory]

How about corporate responsibility? Don't want to get sued because you force employees to do things off the clock? Let them do those things on the clock.
And yea, one of the reasons I like apple is because they generally seem like a responsible corporation. Hopefully they'll add this to their list and you can stop projecting whatever misguided ideas about "responsibility"

I don't think Apple cares whether or not they get sued for this because it's a bogus claim and as others have said will be thrown out. The reason being that bringing in a bag is optional. There might be more of a case if every employee had to go through the check whether they brought a bag or not.

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Bottom line is that a company cannot legally request that an hourly employee participate in any action (policy or otherwise) without compensation. No matter how you slice it, there is no way to out-rationalize that legal fact.

If that was true then companies would be required to compensate employees for transporting themselves to the workplace, but of course nobody is compensated for the time and costs associated with routine traveling to work, even though it is required by the company

 

[vmistery]

They actually search you every shift? I worked in retail through my teens / early 20s to support my Degree but in no job was I searched every day (sure once a month at the end of a shift). If me or any colleague wanted to we could have made out with lots of reasonably high value stuff but CCTV etc would have caught us eventually and then ruin future employment prospects - so unsurprisingly in the main most people stayed the right side of the line!

I would find this sort of treatment morale crushing and probably make me despise the employer possibly making me more likely to do something to damage the company.

 

[Lancer]

grow up. you have a job. a good job. stop whining.

+1

I've been looking for full time work for a long time.

That said why can't the door greater do the checking, at the front of the store?

 

[billypilgrim89]

The bag checks aren't the problem.

It's the managers who don't finish when most of the retail staff leave, who insist on doing everything under the sun before they can be bothered to get up and let people out the door.

 

[barkmonster]

Yeah but you boot up your computer while you are already on your shift, you don't have to get 20 minutes earlier to ensure the computer is booted up by the time your shift starts.

It could be worse. I worked in a call centre for a few frustrating years and I had to put up with the following in an environment with no union to help the staff:

1) They expected you logged on and ready for your shift. Logging in happened in YOUR time.

2) If you're on a call during designated break times. Tough, breaks are only 10 minutes.

3) If you're on a call during your designated lunch times. Tough, lunch is 1 hour.

4) If you're on call at the end of your shift. Tough, some mini-hitler manager will make sure you don't rush it even though you're working in YOUR time.

5) If shift changes mean for the sake of working a different Saturday every 4 weeks you have to waste £30 on a taxi for 20 minutes of THEIR precious time. Tough. But if you're brainwashed to believe a load of nonsense primitive desert people dreamt up in the 7th century, have all the time out of work to worship on a Friday. It's not like everyone else is working their designated hours for the same salary or anything.

6) When taken over by another company and targets increase by over 60% in 3 months, affecting wages. Tough.

7) When because of all the above, people are leaving in droves without giving notice and they pay you by cheque without warning because of some flaky new policy. Tough. Have the cheek to object to it because you have rent to pay and nothing to actually get to work with till the cheque clears, some patronising payroll dragon trivialises the matter and you object to her attitude? Don't do that, ironbox is so offended, she'll turn into a delicate little flower and tough when that costs you the job.

Companies without unions are awful to work for.

If companies don't realise their employees are there for the simple exchange of effort and skills for a wage and the company are actually renting their employees time for a salary, they're not a particularly good company to work for.

 

[yezzum]

Sorry, didn't read all 21 pages or the legal doc.

How exactly are they going to prove who was or wasn't affected by this? Are they logging who has their bag checked everytime they leave the store? If not, there's going to be some pretty vague assumptions regarding the % of people who were subjected to a bag check at each break and end of shift, as well as an assumption around the average time that they were impacted.

 

[Kevenly]

Treating employees as criminal suspects... Deplorable, disrespectful and paranoid behavior on the part of the employer.

 

[macchiato2009]

i worked for almost 2 years for Apple Retail and at the beginning i followed the rules

but after a few months i was really annoyed and stopped to show the content of my bag and my iphone

i considered that this kind of check is like treating every employee like a theft

especially when we had real theft visiting a store, we sometimes called the police but most of the time never called the cops and let the guy walk away


now looking back to my past employment, i feel like Apple treated us like *****:

- working crappy hours at Apple's will, no possible discussion about schedules
- coming back to work and having days off cancelled because of quarterly store meetings
- bag checks
- Apple claiming not to be responsible for employees' personal properties stolen in-store...
- internal conflicts
- opacity in annual reviews/salary raises...

....


i really hope Apple will lose this case


respecting employees should be the #1 concern to an employer

 

[diazj3]

Is there more to the story that I'm not getting? Are these people under age and in a sweat shop or something?

No... don't be dramatic. IMO, they are only asking for what's fair and legal.

But you are right: usually, when small problems - and this is a small problem, easy to fix - create such extreme reactions, such as a class action suit, that's a strong indication that there is much more to it beneath the surface. Once trust between workers and the company is broken by cheap management decisions, it takes time to put it back together.

Plus, I'm sure none of this is news to Apple. Surely this issue was discussed, and disregarded by management - and now, ***** has hit the fan. Any competent manager should've known that making employees wait - on their time, after a long busy shift - to check their bags every day to make sure they are not stealing, lands in the sensitive side of issues that will destroy whatever confidence is left.

For example, some months ago there was a conflict regarding wages and scheduling, plus the argument that they were not fairly compensated in the light of the profitability of the stores. Such scars don't disappear easily, and after abuse is felt by any of the involved parties, anything can inflame the relationship again.

 

[macchiato2009]

what happens if Apple loses this class action ?

would it affect former employees too ?

 

[BvizioN]

Things that the human mind have to go through now days to hit the jackpot!!

 

[ihuman:D]

I have provided many examples and solutions for people who think they "need" a bag... truth is hardly anyone "needs" a bag...

Nobody "needs" a phone, but I bet you and nearly everyone else here carries one around.

 

[jlc1978]

I hate all the typical US class action bandwagon, i'm European and i just think 90% of times is borderline to total madness.

I find it interesting to see different perspectives on the same things. Europeans find our class action approach silly; and then turn around and point out with pride how their regulatory agencies fine companies for things similar to our class actions, only in the EU's case the people who actually suffered harm may get nothing out of it. It's not that one is better or worse than the other, just different.

Of course, I also find it ironic companies will scream and whine about lawsuits and then turn around and sue another company and explain how they are protecting their rights.

Apple should pay employes for travel - time and cost. Any emails or correspondence related to work should be billed. There should also be compensation for the duration of any off-clock work related thoughts which should be noted by employees, including the duration of such notations.

With the advent of almost constant accessibility that is becoming an issue, not just because of compensation but liability. I can see an employer being held liable, if a company expects responses off - hours, when an employee causes an accident while replying to an email. You can argue that it is a ridiculous, but I can see it becoming a logical extension of the concept that you are liable if someone is acting as your agent or for your benefit.

 

[haravikk]

If you don't want to be stopped all the time for bag checks then… don't take a bag to work! Or at the very least take a small bag with only the essentials you need (money, your own phone etc.) rather than something that will take ages to search. Do Apple stores have lockers for employees? Because you could just keep any emergency stuff there, like an umbrella or raincoat for example.

I mean, I see people that carry rucksacks everywhere they go but… why? If you're going to be in work all day and go straight home afterwards then what could you possibly need such a bag for?

I dunno, I carry everything I need in two pockets and just wear or carry a jacket. If I think I'll need spare deodorant or whatever then I just keep it at a workplace. Or at least I did, I'm self employed and work from home now, no mandatory bag searches for me!

 

[PraisiX-windows]

Wow, are they really doing bag checks? - guess that must be an american thing, 'cause I'm not sure that's legal over here in Denmark.