Court orders Apple to pay workers for off-the-clock bag checks
Sacramento CA Feb 15 2020
California’s Supreme Court has ordered Apple to pay its store employees for time spent in off-the-clock mandatory bag and phone checks by managers or security personnel.
In a court order released Thursday, Judge Tani Cantil-Sakauye said the decision is retroactive for employees, although it is unclear how much Apple will need to pay.
In January, Apple reported record quarterly revenue of almost $92 billion and a profit of $22.3 billion.
The decision stems from a 2013 case when two employees, Amanda Frlekin and Dean Pelle, led a class action lawsuit that alleged Apple should have been paying employees for security searches after they clocked out.
While a U.S. District Judge dismissed the case in 2015, lawyers for the employees appealed to the state Supreme Court later that year.
Cantil-Sakauye wrote in her decision that Apple’s argument had holes, such as its contention that employees don’t need to bring bags to work.
“Given that Apple requires its employees to wear Apple-branded apparel while working but directs them to remove or cover up such attire while outside the Apple store, it is reasonable to assume that some employees will carry their work uniform or a change of clothes in a bag in order to comply with Apple’s compulsory dress code policy,” she wrote.
The state’s high court ruled that Apple’s employee searches are basically required, which by law now means they must pay those employees.
“Apple may tailor its bag-search policy as narrowly or broadly as it desires and may minimize the time required for exit searches,” Cantil-Sakauye wrote.
“But it must compensate those employees to whom the policy applies for the time spent waiting for and undergoing these searches.”
