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

[macchiato2009]

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!

bag check concerns all kinds of bags including showing your iphone and your "tech ID card" with the SN of your iphone

sometimes you need to change your clothes

not everyone can afford walking with just hands in the pockets

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

dude, it's not always all about the money

your employer just doesn't respect you as a human being, do you keep your mouth shut ?

it's pretty easy to criticize as you don't have to bear this kind of situation

 

[thekev]

When I used to work for big companies, I GAVE them NO chance to make me feel like a criminal. I don't bring my cluttered Gucci bags the size of a football stadium packed. I always left all my stuff in the trunk of my beat up Civic.

It's probably not a matter of huge cluttered bags so much as availability of management when they clock out. I didn't quote the entire post, but in it you mention the inefficiency on Apple's end. They didn't address that at the time. If this is deemed unacceptable behavior, they owe back pay to employees. There's no reason to dismiss something if it may have merit regardless of your ideological stance on the matter. In my opinion it's a sloppy policy regardless of legality.

 

[randomnut]

If you hire an employee on an hourly rate, than anything like bag searches should be done on paid time. That's just how it works. If they don't want to pay them for it then they should be paying them a daily rate/salary.

For example I as an IT contractor get pid a daily rate. If I work longer than standard hours, I get paid no extra. That's the deal.

Granted there's arguments for not bringing any bags and whatnot to work but you should not be penalised for it. All these 10odd minutes stack up over time.

 

[ThunderRobot]

The practice is wrong and indefensible. If staff 'clock-in' and 'clock-out' then any time which is spent related to the job is down to their employer. I'd say that includes checks placed on the individual by the employer.

Having said that, I'd love to know if the people involved actually complained to management? Did they document the time they were losing and take it to their line manager or store manager? Did they escalate it to Apple Retail?

If they did, fine. However if they didn't and are seeking a litigious settlement to something which could have been easily worked out, then it's inappropriate and chasing money.

 

[iapplelove]

Makes sense. As much of a pain as it is to have to endure these bags checks having to do it on your own time is unreasonable.

Lol endure? Kinda of a harsh word no?

 

[Thunderhawks]

what happens if Apple loses this class action ?

would it affect former employees too ?

The settlement without admitting anything was done wrong will be that the lawyers get most of the money and the employees will get a $ 20 coupon
for the iTunes or App store.

 

[samcraig]

Stating the obvious (again)

Just because "you" deal with something at work or have gotten over being treated a certain way doesn't make it right or legal.

There are different laws for hourly vs salary employees.

While we don't know how or if this was ever escalated - there is nothing inherently wrong with workers creating a united front and testing the legal system if they believe they have been wronged by their employer.

What is frivolous or not important to you is not necc frivolous or not important to someone else.

Lost wages is lost wages. Whether it's .01 or 1M. If you ARE entitled to compensation, you are entitled to it.

To imply that no one NEEDS to take a bag to work and therefor the onus is on them is ludicrous.

 

[cpragman]

This is news, why??

I guess this is newsworthy because it involves Apple?

Can't think of any other reason.

This is one of the realities of shift work. If your job is involved in continuous production, then the line must run non-stop. You also need to do turnover between oncoming and offgoing shifts. Lots of case law out there about this. I don't think the plaintiffs will succeed. They aren't "working". Their shift is over. They just can't go home yet... Not the same thing.

 

[samcraig]

I guess this is newsworthy because it involves Apple?

Can't think of any other reason.

This is one of the realities of shift work. If your job is involved in continuous production, then the line must run non-stop. You also need to do turnover between oncoming and offgoing shifts. Lots of case law out there about this. I don't think the plaintiffs will succeed. They aren't "working". Their shift is over. They just can't go home yet... Not the same thing.

I don't completely disagree with your premise. But where is that line in the sand? It might be "fair" to keep someone 5 min. What about 15? What about 30min. What about an hour?

 

[joshuarayer]

Too many posts to read at this point, but going to throw in my 2 cents and sorry if any of this has been covered.

1) People who say employees shouldnt bring in bags, tell that to the ladies who have purses. Or the people who are coming from a freelance meeting on their way to work and have a laptop or iPad they dont want to leave sitting in their car.

2) It just isnt bags. I worked at an Apple store 4 or 5 years ago and if you had any iDevice, they have to check your serial number to make sure it matches one they have on record as yours and not you trying to swap out your 16GB iPhone for a 64GB one.

3) Clocking in/out is done from a computer in the back room so cant clock out at the door when you leave.

 

[FreudianSlap]

One of my friends works at a retail store of another company who have a similar policy. Not sure if its done on the clock or not, but she always puts, shall we say, 'unsavoury' items in her bag that are clearly hers, but not sold at the store...

 

[gnasher729]

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

Knowing people quite well who work in retail and hearing their observations, treating employees as criminal suspects is unfortunately often the correct and realistic attitude. It's annoying for the honest majority, but a dishonest employee can be very, very expensive.

 

[bbeagle]

I guess Apple should pay employees for the 10 minutes it takes their employees to park and walk through the mall to the store, right? They can't park inside the mall next to the Apple store, so they must 'endure' the 10 minute each-way walk to the store.

Oh, and does Apple provide breakfast? They 'need' to have breakfast to be able to do their jobs without fainting of hunger. Oh, and they need to sleep, and shower. All these things Apple doesn't pay for that they need to do their jobs! The horrors!

 

[samcraig]

I guess Apple should pay employees for the 10 minutes it takes their employees to park and walk through the mall to the store, right? They can't park inside the mall next to the Apple store, so they must 'endure' the 10 minute each-way walk to the store.

Oh, and does Apple provide breakfast? They 'need' to have breakfast to be able to do their jobs without fainting of hunger. Oh, and they need to sleep, and shower. All these things Apple doesn't pay for that they need to do their jobs! The horrors!

None of the above is remotely the same. Nice try. Oh - and similar posts already exist in this thread. Just FYI.

 

[gnasher729]

Even better, if your supervisor thinks it's hilarious to change the language on your iPhone/iPod/iPad to Mandarin, Thai, Arabic, Korean, Cyrillic, etc, every. single. time. he 'investigates' your serial number. There's nothing so "fun" as having to figure out how to navigate the menus on your personal property when it's set to non-roman characters by the jackass who decides if your job performance is up to par.

If you are a bit clever, you wouldn't figure that out yourself. You'd make an appointment at the genius bar in your own store and let them figure it out. And let them explain to you how to fix it very slowly. And ask them to put into your service records (which they keep for any work they do on any devices) that the settings where changed by your supervisor.

 

[gnasher729]

As a former Apple retail employee, I can safety say my store wasn't a big deal. A manager was always around and I waited all of 1-2 minutes for the most part. It REALLY depends on the manager i'd say. Personally, I always caught a manager in our back room to check my bag as I was clocking out.

I bet if the stores had to pay for the employees' waiting time, then it would take at most 1-2 minutes in every store. Because there would be some statistics that the manager would have to fill in "total hours paid waiting time for bag searches" which would be a real cost to the company, so he or she would work hard to reduce that time. "Total hours unpaid waiting time for bag searches" doesn't matter.

Same with the poster who complained that it took 15 minutes to boot up his computer and log in (and payment starts when logged in). If the company had to pay for that time, can you imagine how quickly they would reduce the boot time? (Or pay one employee who starts an hour early and boots up all the computers in the office).

 

[Arran]

The US Department of Labor has this to say on hours worked by retail employees:

Hours Worked: Employers must record and pay for all hours worked by employees including any time controlled by the employer, such as time spent "engaged to wait."

"Engaged to Wait" means:

Waiting Time: Whether waiting time is hours worked under the Act depends upon the particular circumstances. Generally, the facts may show that the employee was engaged to wait (which is work time) or the facts may show that the employee was waiting to be engaged (which is not work time). For example, a secretary who reads a book while waiting for dictation or a fireman who plays checkers while waiting for an alarm is working during such periods of inactivity. These employees have been "engaged to wait."

Being kept waiting for an obligatory bag check would come under that definition.

Everyone's opinions are fine, but they don't replace the law of the land presented here: United States Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - Off-the-Clock References.

 

[mr.bee]

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.

Uhm, if you grant me the access to look in your bag, why would it be illegal then?

if I'm not allowed to look in your bag, why would I hire you in the first place?

this is just a case of 'look a pile of cash, let's try to squeeze something out of them'

 

[gnasher729]

Sounds fair, Apple shouldn't do that without paying them for their time. The legality of the search is something I don't know about.

I think the search itself is quite Ok. I wouldn't mind my employer searching me for three hours every day - as long as I get paid for the time.

 

[samcraig]

The US Department of Labor has this to say on hours worked by retail employees:

"Engaged to Wait" means:

Being kept waiting for an obligatory bag check would come under that definition.

Everyone's opinions are fine, but they don't replace the law of the land presented here: United States Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - Off-the-Clock References.

Great post. Thank you.

this is just a case of 'look a pile of cash, let's try to squeeze something out of them'

No. It's not necessarily anything like that. But I love your cynicism

 

[gnasher729]

This company has NO RIGHT to hold "time clock" employees even as much as 1 minute pass their "clocked out" time. The onus is on the company if they want to take security measures to ensure employees aren't walking off with property.

I'd say there are two different times: Times where the company is paying the employee, and times when they are not paying. And then there are times where the company can tell the employee what to do, and times when they cannot tell them what to do. And these sets of times match. As long as they pay you, they can tell you to wait two hours to have your bag checked. If they don't pay you, they can't tell you to wait.

 

[B4U]

As far as I am concerned, if it is at will employment, they are welcomed to find another line of work.

 

[theanonymousbob]

My Paid hours are 9-5:30 Monday-Friday.
My actual hours are 7:45-6:45 Monday-Friday.
There is supposed to be an hour's lunch in there somewhere, but rarely is.
Oh and then I do work in the evening and at weekends remotely!

If you are hourly and not being paid, you're getting hosed.

 

[charlitos]

seems legit

 

[bbeagle]

None of the above is remotely the same. Nice try. Oh - and similar posts already exist in this thread. Just FYI.

It's EXACTLY the same. You're required by work to have a baggage check. You're also required by work to commute and walk in. Both are unpaid time, and both are ridiculous for the employer to pay for.

I guess you'll tell me that a teacher standing in line going through a metal detector at school should be paid time too?