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Apple Sued For Turning Workers Into Slaves
SwiftyNifty writes "Apple employees are putting together a class action lawsuit for not receiving overtime pay. A Lawsuit filed Monday in California seeks class action status alleging that Apple denied technical staffers required overtime pay and meal compensation in violation of state law.
Filed in the US District Court for Southern California, the complaint claims that many Apple employees are routinely subjected to working conditions resembling indentured servitude, or 'modern day slaves,' for lack of better words."
If you think YOU'RE a slave, try working in a iPod factory in China for a while. And be glad Apple at least hasn't outsourced you....yet.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You know for all the flak we give the traditional media, at least they don't have headlines like this.
Not properly dispensing overtime pay is not the same thing as slavery, and the disconnect between the inflammatory headline and TFA is appalling.
On a lighter note, the CAPTCHA for me is unionize.
The real litigious bastards...
Maybe these people need to talk with someone who has actually been enslaved before they claim they were treated the same way. They should be compensated appropriately for their time, but the shock value of using the term "slave" is pretty ridiculous.
Whale
Nobody hunted him down and made him return to the job; he's not a slave, QED.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
'Slavery' seems like far too extreme of a word the 'indentured servitude' is slightly less inaccurate. And concerning 'servitude' the 13th amendment only prohibits "involuntary servitude". These people can quit if they would like.
I've already seen a "joke" about cultists (it was crap, I'm expecting better), any more?
But yeah, a random comment, capitalism sucks.
Seriously, people often don't have a real choice (the freedom to starve...) when it comes to signing contracts, especially in countries (such as the USA) where significant workers rights aren't enshrined in law.
In this case, it appears that the workers signed contracts which said that they wouldn't get paid an hourly rate, which means that they don't get overtime. Which means (at least in this case), that they can get over worked for nothing.
And that is a problem (I've heard it is a very big problem in Japan generally).
Basically (and I'm taking off my anarchist hat for a minute), workers rights do require regulation in a capitalist economy, otherwise they get screwed.
I wank in the shower.
Indentured Servitude: An indentured servant is a form of debt bondage worker, in which the indentured individual is intentionally, unethically and illegally deprived of their human rights, their civil rights and their personal freedom and liberty.
Unfortunately TFA is Slashdotted right now so I can't read all of the details, but if the summary is anything to go by, I really, really doubt Apple was forcing these guys to work due to debt and/or was holding them captive. What they did do was make their workers work OT without paying them correctly, which is an inexcusably naughty practice, but it's hardly indentured servitude, slavery, or any other form of bondage.
Furthermore this shit is fairly common, Apple isn't the first company or the last company to stiff their employees on OT. That doesn't make it right and certainly knocks Apple down a few pegs in my own eyes, but get some perspective here people.
"Lead plaintiff David Walsh was employed by Apple as a network engineer from 1995 until 2007. His complaint says he was often required to work more than 40 hours per week, miss meals, and spend his evenings and even entire weekends on call without any overtime pay or meal compensation. He fielded technical support calls that often came after 11 pm."
Sounds like a typical work week for me. I don't get overtime pay or meal compensation either. And I don't get a free iPod or iPhone as a Christmas gift.
She and her colleagues have "X" number of contract days for which they must report to work.
However of late, the practice has begun of additional "nonmandatory" meetings, training sessions, and general workdays. You know, "for the children." This has grown to the point where she is probably present "at work" during about 12 to 15 days of her summer vacation. None of this time is compensated in any way; in fact, with gasoline costs as they are, you may readily say SHE is paying for this privilege.
Oh, it's "not mandatory," but it is "expected" by the administrators, who like to boast to their peers about the amount of "donated time" they're getting out of their teachers. "Failure to cooperate" can lead to subtle retaliation.
My point is that this isn't "slavery" but it is d*mned inconsiderate. If you want to climb the "ladder of success," don't do it on the backs of your "underlings."
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Good god it appears to be the phrase of the year "We are just modern slaves". Top of the shop of abuse of the term is Sepp "I'm a nutter" Blatter who in reference to someone who is paid about $300,000 A WEEK said that it was just like modern slavery.
These people aren't slaves because.... THEY COULD QUIT. It might be tough, it might be hard, but either quit and get another job or work out a constructive way of fixing it.
Don't compare it to the physical ownership of another human being and the sort of destruction of human rights that entails.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
... where, unless you are upper management, you are getting the shaft. Being a developer, I particularly like how (at my company anyway) our sales staff pulls down Director level salary and obscene commissions on the gross (NOT net) product they push out the door ... even when it means a loss for the company.
I remember back years ago where there were a few movements to form programmers unions ... doomed to failure from the inception. Programmers don't need huge entrenched installations to do our work like, say, UAW workers do ... and since every cocky high school kid who has churned out "Hello World" in Visual Basic thinks they can do real development ... and the typical management position that developers are an easily replaced commodity.
I dunno. I'm just old and jaded. Always do the best work you are capable of doing, and if you feel you deserve better compensation when your company is either unwilling (don't see you as a valuable asset) or unable (poor decisions have left them so fubar that they can't) then it is time to move on. Possibly more important ... if you are unhappy doing what you are doing, forget the compensation and move ASAP.
Suing your own company for a perceived lack of compensation is the best way to build resentment and to nail the coffin shut on your future with that, or any other, company.
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte
The US and, in particular, California are a far cry from not having any significant workers' rights enshrined in law. Also, none of these people were above working elsewhere if the pay they got at Apple was really that awful for the hours they were putting in.
Employment contracts often have something called a "covenant not to compete", enforced to at least some extent in pretty much every U.S. state but California.
Apple employees aren't slaves. Or even indentured servants. The comparison is offensive given there is real slavery going on elsewhere in the world.
Are they asked to work unreasonable hours and compensated unfairly? Maybe. But they can always quit and seek employment elsewhere. If all of Apple's talent just up and leaves, they'll either fail as a company or rectify their compensation strategy. Capitalism at work.
I know that people love to throw around buzz words that illicit an immediate emotional response but I think people need to truly understand the power those words possess and recognize that, by using the word, they are not empowering their case. They are demonstrating a shocking lack of understanding of our world's history which immediately undermines their case as nothing more than the histrionics of a drama queen. Does this lawsuit have ground to stand on? Possibly. If Apple is treating their staff unfairly then a class action lawsuit is warranted. But, as soon as anyone associated with the case attached "slave" to their description of the situation, my immediate reaction because "attention whore seeking easy payday." If you're going to use an emotionally charged word, make certain it's relevant. In this case, it couldn't be less relevant if they tried. They may as well have simply likened Apple to Nazis while they were at it...
Might want to check up on that. Yes, you work less and are paid more, and given equal outputs, you are therefore less productive.
Thus the low levels of entrepreneurial investment in Europe v. United States.
Umm, no, we are about as productive, as the US suffers from "presenteeism", where people show up and don't do anything.
There's only so many useful hours of work you can get out of someone in a week. The law of diminishing returns applies here.
Basically, you don't have to have everyone in a class file a class action lawsuit for it be presented, but now everyone at Apple is now tagged as a slacker because a few people that were unhappy and yet too lazy to find jobs elsewhere decided to bring the whole house down. Of course, the employee s might get a free soda or a coffee extra out of the suit, but the lawyers are going to walk away rich out of money that could have gone towards more R&D, headcount, or, earnings per share. So, to make up the slack from the lawsuit, the Apple employees are simply going to have to work -even harder-.
Dumb.
This is my sig.
I come from a farming family, and the "working sun-up to after sundown" bit is pure BS.
For about six weeks, yes, my aunt and uncle work from 5 am to around 6 pm: about four weeks in the beginning of the season and about two around harvest time. The remainder of the year they probably work an average 8 hour day just like everybody else. In winter, there's a couple of weeks that they aren't doing anything and often take a vacation.
There's nothing wrong with the American work ethic. It's boneheads like you that live to work, not work to live, that need to figure it out. Most Europeans don't work nearly as many hours as the average American in the same job.. and who's currency is getting trashed right now?
Auto unions also tend to produce employees who are complacent at best. They know they are protected by the union and do crappy work as a whole.
Toyota is smart, because keeping unions out also increases their ability to ensure quality exists.
Compare GM cars with Toyota, and the results should be obvious.
I am open source, and Linux baby!
Why would anyone work over without compensation? No one goes to their daily job because they like to, or because they want to help out the company. Thinking that you're doing so and will see some magical return in good grace is ridiculous. No manager or CEO would ever go out of their way to help you, so you shouldn't go out of your way to help them.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
A lot of people are getting hung up on the use of the word slavery in this context. Now, I agree that what were seeing here isn't remotely close to slavery, indentured servitude, etc.
But use of on "over the top" word doesn't change the possibility that Apple's employment practices may be violation of State or Federal law. A lot of employers over use the salaried position category to avoid paying overtime. Most employee's do not understand their rights enough to know the difference to they put up with it assuming that is just part of the job, when, in fact, they are being abused.
Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
Yes, living on only $100,000 a year in Silicon Valley is simply impossible. Except of course for the other 80 percent of the population not making $100,000 a year.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
"(the year I got my undergrad 40% of education majors were on the deans list less then 5% of engineers were)"
That's because it's a HELL of a lot harder to make Dean's list when you study something HARD.
Back to the blackboard! Do it again, this time show your work!
Keanu as Klaatu. Don't forget that part of the story. Keanu Reeves adds suck to just about anything he touches. His manager/agent recently got the rights to do a live-action version of Cowboy Bebop, so now it's almost a certainty that will be FUBAR as well. Keanu will either be Spike or Vicious. Guaranteed suckfest.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
And that's a big point for the lawsuit. That is flat out illegal. You can't require somebody to do something for work and not pay them.
Educators are typically salaried, no?
I've taught and I've worked in a factory. Its obvious you have never worked in a factory if you think that is the easy-to-do job. Standing over a press machine in an non-air conditioned building for 12 hours a day is not easy, even if it is mentally challenging.
Also, factory jobs are not exactly easy to come by these days.
Are you kidding? Why do you want to mess with min. wage fast food jobs? I mean...these are NOT meant to be living wages. They are they are there for high school and college kids to earn extra money while in school.
[...]
Hmm..I don't eat fast food very often [...]
It shows. I mean, when's the last time you saw a fast food restaurant that was mostly staffed by teenagers & college students? For me, it was the 90's, and it was a Chick-Fil-A that made a point of hiring kids from the local foster homes they sponsor.
The vast majority of fast food workers I see are low-income wage slaves who do not (and will not) have a college education, just trying to get by. This is true even if you cut out the kitchen staff (which stopped being kids and started being immigrant labor as far back as when *I* was a kid). I'd say that I only see someone in that high school to college age group maybe 1 in 5 times I eat at a fast food restaurant, and I almost never see two people in that age group.
I have mixed feelings about unionizing fast food, but stop believing the fantasy that kids are the only people working McJobs. It's just not true anymore in the places where I've lived.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Unfortunately most greedy managers sem unable to see past the bottom line of the next quarter.
Fixed that for you.
MOST of the time, what happens, is that the task of creating a call center comes down from up above, and is handed to a manager, or a manager is hired to head up the project. The manager evaluates his options, and is given a goal to meet. Rather than getting reasonably close to the goal, they decide to undercut the goal to make themselves look better. When they save the company an boatload of money, they're given bonuses, promoted, etc. Some companies automatically give bonuses if managers do well.
The problem is that the effects are not usually immediate and strong enough to stop the manager from being patted on the back and given bonuses/promoted/etc. Its the people down the road that have to deal with all the fallout, and the company is just that much weaker for outsourcing to India for half the cost.
Most CEOs are pretty savvy in the business world. You usually only hear about the ones that aren't.
This kind of thing happens in jobs everywhere. Why would the contractor use better quality materials on your house when they can use things they bought at half price? As long as they're gone it doesn't matter if it lasts. Why should the CEO make good decisions if they can just work for a year or two and then golden-parachute their ways to a few million? Why should your DVD player last for more than a year? The point is, they already have your money. Be it your money in the hands of a manufacturer of a cheap knockoff that lasted two weeks before dying, or be it the money of a company in the hands of some greedy asshole who doesn't give a damn about anything except for his own paycheck.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
It's conceptually easy. Doing it repeatedly and fast enough to not have the line pile up behind you is not easy. Licking a stamp is extremely easy. Try licking a few thousand an hour and you'll see what I mean.
Sounds to me like you've never worked in a factory.
Ever tried scraping Guinea-pig shit off cages for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, in stinking "high" summer? Even after 6 weeks, Monday morning normally involves struggling to keep your breakfast down. (OK, in a hospital, not a factory.)
Ever tried spending all day climbing around inside 10m tall machines, trying to get to obscurely-placed grease points to pump them, or getting to a lube-oil tank to install the drain hose, then fill up with flushing oil, then drain again, then fill with the next year's worth of lube oil. See those 40 mixing vats - go inspect the oil level in every gear box, and top up as necessary ; here's your 25l top-up tank, carry it to the top of each separate tank. This afternoon, you can do the vats in the next building, but they need a different type of oil.
Ever tried dashing up to the top of a 250ft tower, in a Force 9 and rising gale, because NOW is the only opportunity that you're going to have this month to clean the various sensors up there, and it needs to be done this week.
Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt and the industrially-damaged hearing and dermatitis. And believe me,working 20-hour days (bed-to-bed, including 1 hour/day for food, shit and coffee breaks) in the geology lab is a lot preferable to working on the shop floor.
I would really, strongly, advise you to spend one or more of your summers working at the bottom of the industrial pile. NOTHING but NOTHING will improve your motivation to get a better job more than some experience of what for most people is "real life". Love of money and such like trivia are nothing compared to the motivation of avoiding hard work.
Hey, I can even SlashDot while supervising a gas system calibration and doing a system backup!
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"