Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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
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. Slavery and indentured servitude take away that choice. Capitalism doesn't suck. People bitching about their dream job not paying overtime sucks.
Communism sucks worse. It's called working on a salary - the expectation is to do the job, and get paid for doing the job. Yeah, working for a big corporation can suck at times because to really get ahead there you have to do OYOT stuff, but that's something that society's most productive - and essential - members will ALWAYS do.
That being said, state law typically trumps any/all contract law - if the contract signed was illegal, then you're not held to it.
I don't get paid for showing up to work per hour. I get paid to work and do a job.
We're in America - we're free to fail, and I think that people don't like that sometimes - they felt they are owed for simply trying. You're not. Hence the complaints about stupid stuff like this where people FEEL "trapped" when they're not in it as much as they think they are. Successful people don't whine about their circumstances - they go out and try to change them.
... 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
"We're in America - we're free to fail"
If you're a little guy, sure. But if you're a company that's "too big to fail", like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, etc, then the socialism kicks in and you get bailed out.
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...
.
Don't misunderstand, I think it is very macho of you to give your labor away for free. Being taken advantage of by your bosses is the best way to prove that you are an IT god, after all. I'm sure that since you've taken care of your company in this way, they'll take care of you. Even if shipping your job someplace else or just eliminating it makes financial sense, I'm sure you'll be fine. After all, after all the loyalty and dedication you've shown, they'd never do that to you, would they?
Incidentally, iPods/iPhones? Worthless consumer junk, give me the cash not the overpriced trinket.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Really ? According to an article I read (and please correct me if I'm wrong) the US is the ONLY industrialized nation where annual leave is not a legal requirement. Heck, most DEVELOPING countries have it as a requirement. 14 days a year in South Africa (and if you don't use them all, they have to pay you for it), a full month in Brazil, 2 months in Germany.
And the grand irony - legally protected annual leave has been proven to INCREASE corporate productivity (as much as any economic idea is ever proven anyways).
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
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.
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.
If annual leave actually increases corporate productivity, then it will be adopted by corporations operating in a capitalist market. It's that simple. What we do have in the USA is the freedom to decide that between employer and employee, as well as the freedom to experiment with whether and how much paid vacation affects productivity. You can't prove that it increases productivity because you don't have any way to experiment.
That's such a ridiculous fallacy. It turns out the world isn't a perfect capitalist market. That would require perfect knowledge, and it turns out that no one has that. People who make these decisions make them for their own benefit, are terrified of experimenting in a way that could upset the things that are already working, and usually abandon any new ideas the moment any remotely potential problem arises.
The GP points at some of the only evidence we do have, which comes from the powerhouse European economy's generous paid leave. Does that prove anything? No. It lets us make some educated guesses, though, and to think that capitalism means that the best solution will always be adopted and become widespread is a great mistake. At best, capitalism in practice is a series of educated guesses that often leads down very unproductive roads.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
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.
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"