Apple sued by U.S. workers for unpaid wages
Source: Silicon Beat
Jul 30, 2013 - 4 hours ago
While Apple suppliers are again coming under fire for poor working conditions overseas, Apple itself is the target of a new lawsuit from its employees in the U.S.
In a class-action lawsuit filed last week in San Francisco federal court, two former hourly employees at Apple Stores in Los Angeles and New York are claiming violations of state labor laws and the Unfair Labor Standards Act, saying they are due lost wages for unpaid time spent having their personal bags searched.
The lawsuit claims whenever employees leave the store, whether for a break or to go home, they must wait in line for up to 15 minutes for off-the-clock inspections of personal bags and purses for stolen items. According to the two plaintiffs, the anti-theft searches added up to about an hour and a half of unpaid overtime a week — about $1,500 a year. The policy has been in effect at all Apple Stores for the past 10 years, the lawsuit says:
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. These practices include requiring Apple Hourly Employees to wait in line and undergo two off-the-clock security bags searches and clearance checks when they leave for their meal breaks and after they have clocked out at the end of their shifts. . . . This illegal practice and policy has been known to the Defendant for years and Apple continues to require Apple Hourly Employees to endure these required but uncompensated security checks.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, but with more than 42,000 retail employees, Apple could be faced with tens of millions of dollars in potentially unpaid wages.
Read more: http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/07/30/apple-sued-by-u-s-workers-for-unpaid-wages/
Apple Sued by Former Retail Workers for Unpaid Wages
July 30, 2013, 1:47 pm
Apple designs its retail stores to be a seamless shopping experience, where a customer can pick up a MacBook and be out of the store in minutes. But some of Apple’s former retail employees say working at the stores was less than smooth.
Former Apple store employees in New York and Los Angeles have filed a class-action lawsuit charging that they were forced to wait in line for 30 minutes a shift for their bags to be searched for stolen goods. They say that they are not paid for the time standing in line, which amounts to $1,500 a year. The suit, which was filed in the Federal District Court in the Northern District of California, was reported earlier by GigaOm.
Apple declined to comment. “We don’t comment on pending litigation,” said Amy Bessette, an Apple spokeswoman. But the company is not alone with this type of lawsuit in the retail business. Forever 21, the clothing retailer, was sued last year by its employees who said they were kept at stores during lunch breaks so their bags could be searched.
Apple’s retail stores take in more money per square foot than any other United States retailer. But employees in Apple’s retail stores enjoy little of that wealth, the majority of them earning about $25,000 a year.
More: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/apple-sued-by-former-retail-workers-for-unpaid-wages/?_r=0
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Fascists. 
