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Apple Retailer Facing Class Action Suit Over Employee Bag Checks
aitikin writes "Former Apple employees say the company requires workers to stand around without pay for up to 30 minutes a day while waiting for managers to search their bags for stolen merchandise."
The filing. It looks pretty illegal: mandatory unpaid checks of personal belongings before and after work and all breaks.
hiring people to work in your store who can't afford the product. Ford paid his workers well so they could afford his card. Apple store has to search it's workers to prevent theft. Maybe if they paid them better they wouldn't have to worry about this.
If Apple's actions are being described correctly, that's time that clearly belongs to be on the clock.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Why don't they just ban the bags from the stores in the first place? A lot easier to enforce, a lot less time consuming, and a lot less legally dubious. I wonder if Apple management just enjoys lawsuits as well as any opportunity to violate the privacy of others.
I never go to Apple stores.
I've worked at a few retail companies that do this. CVS was the biggest offender. The CVS I worked at has the only cameras in the building facing employees, and a mandatory bag check on the way out, every shift. Switching out at 2:30 and ready to go home? Lets hope your store isn't busy or you will be sitting there for a while.
Considering it is now legal to prohibit class actions in EULAs, it won't take long to put that into most job contracts. At least for Apple.
But then IANAL, so pardon my ignorance if EULAs are somehow less restrictive.
2/3rds of loss in retail is from employee theft. At a place like Apple outlets, where the products are small, expensive, and easily turned over for cash to friends or pawn shops, I'd imagine it's even higher. Not that this fact excuses forcing unpaid overtime on your workers, but I'm not surprised they're doing bag checks.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
No sympathy whatsoever.
As an airline pilot I do not get paid while I wait in line and am checked by the TSA. I do not get paid while I wait in line for customs. I do not get paid while I get the flight paperwork and verify it is safe and legal. I do not get paid while preparing and inspecting the airplane for flight. I do not get paid while I wait for everyone to get on the plane and coordinate with gate, ramp, fuel, maintenance and catering to ensure an on-time departure.
In California, under state law it is very expensive for an employer to employ shenanigans like this. The fines can be quite large, the litigation can be quite expensive, and there is a potential for the employees to be paid wages while the issue is being resolved by the courts (at least as I understand the law). There is a reason why employers don't like California regulations, employees have the potential to grab the employer by the balls and twist and twist if the state EDD finds that the charges have merit.
Anyway, this case is just another example of just how evil Apple is as a company. It is unfortunate because I like its products (mostly) and I've owned several over the years.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
It's about that Apple "Experience"........
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
I don't even see how such a thing is legal..
i think the whole point is that it is not legal
As an airline pilot, you've (well, your union, on your behalf) negotiated a contract with the airline where your pay is based on getting the plane where it needs to go, and you are paid for all activities necessary to accomplish the task for which you are paid for.
Also known as, AIRLINE PILOTS ARE NOT HOURLY EMPLOYEES.
I am sure that, once you add up all the time you spend on all of your job-related activities, your wage + time and a half for hours over 40 per week, greatly exceeds the minimum wage.
Just like every other salaried employee who doesn't make any more money when it's crunch time and you have to pull 10-12 hour days to get shit done. It's called a job description, and being paid for the job (get plane from A to B) instead of the time (you were in airports/planes from 9 AM to 8 PM.)
If you don't like the terms of your contract, either renegotiate it so you are paid by the hour instead of by the trip (or flight hour), or work somewhere else. I hear Apple stores are hiring.
Note that Apple stores probably don't have benefits like medical, dental, or free flights on any domestic carrier on a space-available basis, and your hourly wage will plummet vs. your flight-hour wage, but at least you'll get a slight increase on your paycheck if customs takes a little longer to clear!
paintball
This is the third story in a week, of Apple being an abusive employer, whether you are a top engineer, overworked factory worker, or minimum wage shop assistant. colour me surprised that the Apple treat profits over people.
The bottom line is Apples profits are down! again, its margins are shrinking, its sales are plummeting, its market share is down, its technical edge none existent are they really not seeing that moving manufacturing abroad, becoming a purely (arrogant with out substance) design(sic) company, paying literally zero tax.
Ironically I noticed in Harris Poll EquiTrend has Apple as coming out top for Brand of the Year distinctions in three categories - Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phone. All I could think is how irreparably damaged Apples old Techno Hippy Brand has been, and how actual Apples sales numbers reflect that.
This is Apples sales numbers http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q3fy13datasum.pdf and hoe they comparing at IDC (its only smartophones but Apple is becoming a one product company..the iphone) http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24239313/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24239313 The numbers speak for themselves.
Apple is not newsworthy
Surely if you're going to steal something, you'd do it on company time.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
When I worked at Tandy Computers in the late 80's at their manufacturing facility as a motherboard repair technician, they had a similar system to check employees as they left the facility. However, I recall that the time clock was AFTER the checkpoint, so you were being paid while standing in the queue waiting to be checked. This could take 10-20 minutes each shift, depending on how quickly you got to the queue. Most of the workers were relatively low pay, hourly production line workers.
I do think the way Apple stores are handling this is very unfair to employees. You cannot expect that employees come to work without any personal belongings at all, so banning bags is not an option. But, they should be paid while waiting for these checks. They could provide lockers in a secure area outside the "sales area" where employees leave their personal items while at work, and they do not have casual access to these lockers while working.
At the West Hollywood Best Buy I saw employees being visually inspected by a manager as they exited the store single file after closing. At a Culver City Best Buy one of the employees told me they get searched. I didn't believe him until I saw it being done at another location. Pretty humiliating. Hopefully the kids who work there now realize this is not the type of job you want to do long term.
At least they weren't strip searched like we were in prison.
Apple trusts their own employee's less than it trusts its consumers.
Your efforts are well received... but vastly misdirected. DO NOT EXPECT MEASURABLE RESULTS FROM IT.
Tomorrow is another day...
Jan Wong
There were many social issues discussed in this series of articles, the majority of which I didn't agree with as framed. One issue she pointed out was that these barely-literate low-income scullery-scrubs few of whom had driver's licences were expected to haul vacuum cleaners through the Toronto metro system between jobs that were not as proximal as a modern UPS delivery route.
Brown Down: UPS Drivers Vs. The UPS Algorithm
No, the scheduling algorithm employed by the scullery-scrub dispatch office involved chewing up small bits of paper and spitting them at a map, because they were getting away with NOT PAYING for the delivery of vacuum cleaners by their downtrodden and raw-fingered cleaning staff. Many of these barely-solvent workers were putting in eight hour on job sites, plus another four hours (unpaid) moving between job sites, toting equipment that wasn't even their own for less than the cost of delivering the equipment by any other business method.
Jan Wong could have gone to war over a clear violation of labour fairness, but she instead decided to do a lot of public hang-wringing over systemic issues unlikely to ever change.
It's Apple's job to politely inform their store managers that this violates accepted labour practice and to put an end to it as thoroughly as they do with unwelcome rumours about unfinished products.
I once spoke to an ex IBM employee in the early 1980s who said he left IBM because he could get anything done. His department was under such tight security that it took him an hour to get to his desk in the morning and another hour to leave it in the afternoon. I think part of that was fetching his work product from a secure area and returning it there again with an inspection. He was well paid for the whole ordeal, until it finally drove him nuts.
The rule in a democratic salary market is that time is money. Even if the money is too small to spit at from the perspective of the person writing the cheques.
An anecdote I liked from that series was the incident(s) where business owners tried to bully her out of using street parking in front of their stores (which they would prefer to see used by customers) on the presumption that she was timid and uneducated. It almost blew her cover confessing she knew how to drive in the hiring interview. I think she had to tell some huge sob story to make her desperation believable to take such a job as a person who could hold down a driver's licence.
So... do you install crApps on your iPhoney?
Tomorrow is another day...
I worked in a Currys Wareshouse for approx 7 years, I was searched every time I left the warehouse (this was after clocking out) ......during peak times we were there most days for 45 mins after our shift!
... left IBM because he couldn't get anything done ...
Lameness severity is typically evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5, with higher numbers indicating a more significant degree of impairment. A 1 rating suggests a horse with a minor gait deficit, a 5 is "broken-legged" lame, indicating that the horse will not put weight on the affected leg. Initial assessment may include a visual check for outward injuries such as cuts or swelling, observation of a horse as it travels at different gaits, particularly the walk and trot. Flexion tests may also be performed, and hooves will be checked for signs of injury.
This is just a story about 2 stores, and my guess is that it's about paranoid managers who have lost stock in the past. No news here.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
CIBC Bank in Canada didn't pay its tellers for counting thier tills and waiting for the manager to put it in the vault after work. They only paid them until the bank closed the doors on the customers and worked for free to close up.
Maybe Tim Cook should re-hire Ron Johnson (Apple's first manager of retail stores). It seemed like he did a good job.
It seems as though Apple has more security and protections on preventing stuff from being taken by employees than the NSA.
Up to 30 minutes, actually, and it is unpaid time - despite them actually working.
Was that too difficult to understand?
"What we're doing here will send a giant ripple through the universe."
-- Steve Jobs
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
So we're not exactly comparing apples to apples here
I see what you did there.
Look at the YMCA personal trainers, ask them about their "mandatory" volunteering they do each week
.
"But isn't the YMCA a charity you ask?" Why yes and no. The YMCA that gives aid to the homeless and such sure but the gym portion is a whoooole different entity.
I knew an accountant who used to audit them and trust me they knew how to work the system and what was right and what was wrong.
Why is there a need to search all employees all the time? Surely they know how much stock is present or passing through the store, if stuff starts going missing then you can start cracking down on it.
if any of us complain about the abusive, slave-like working conditions, they threaten to send us to work in an Apple store.
(Disclaimer: This is a joke. I do not work at Foxconn.
I've been coming to Slashdot for many years to learn new things about tech and geek subjects but this is getting pathetic. Hate Apple, if you want, but at least base it vaguely on facts rather than complete and total bullshit lies.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2013/may/29/apples-dirty-little-tax-secret-video
This is my favourite video, to explain to you what is happening. Apple don't even use a tax haven :). In effect in America the taxman charges tax where a company is incorporated, Ireland charges a comapny where the company is managed. Apple tells the American taxman the company is incorporated in Ireland...and tells the Irish taxman Apple is managed in America. The senator proceeding over Apple said apple discovered "The holy grail of tax avoidance". They pay literally zero tax on those profits.
If their was a history of internal theft at these two stores than it is a non-issue. then again Apple should not make their products so expensive that their own underpaid employees cannot afford them. The overcharging-VZW store that I use at least gives their workers any phone while employed there. Manager said it is good advertising.
No good deed goes unpunished.
I've worked in all kinds of IT in my many years, and standing around in a line (after clocking out) waiting for a bag search is standard procedure for shops with large quantities of lesser skilled IT folk (retail, basic repair/upgrade operations). It's not just an Apple thing, and I'm really surprised it's even a concern. It's part of the job. Factory workers are at their machines when the pay starts and run through until the quitting bell rings. They're not paid for changing into/outof work clothes in the lockerroom, the walk to the line, etc. Same thing, different industry here. Keep on moving, nothing to see here.
I did the interviews, the job sounded great, received a written offer, accepted it, and then came the "welcome" letter that gave me 48 hours to take a drug test. Uhhhh... nope. I'd rather work for a company that doesn't treat employees like criminals right out of the gate, thanks.
When I worked at Best Buy there was never a 30 minute wait, but all employees and managers were searched entering and exiting if they had a bag.
I mean, do you really need to take your backpack with you on lunch, or even bring one at all, if you worked somewhere with this stupid policy. Take the sandwich out of the bag unless they think you will steal an iPhone between two slices of bread.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Dubious Officer of Unpaid Checking and Harassment Executive - Bags
I don't know about ol' Henry Ford, but my uncle worked at a GM plant in Fremont back in the '60s, when no one dared drive a Ford into the employee lot. Things were changing by the '70s, but the first guys to buy imported economy cars got vandalised pretty hard.
BTW, I'd always heard that Ford paid well to prevent the Labor Unions from getting their foot in the door.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
I used to work for a smaller semiconductor fab. The site itself was considered a foreign trade zone, which meant you were subject to search entering and leaving the building. It doesn't matter if you were paid or not, you were subject to search.
Back in the day I had a roommate that worked at a Baskin Robins that was breaking all kinds of employment rules. For example they were paid minimum wage but if the cash in the drawer didn't match up to what he thought it should, he'd take it out of their pay. Well employment law was the only thing he was breaking, I called the corporate office and it turned out that they had a rule that you had to pay more than minimum wage anyhow. You find that with chains sometimes, they have internal wage rules higher than the legal minimum.
However he got away with it forever because none of his employees (including my roommate) would turn him in. I tried to convince her to, to let the corporate office and the state attorney know, but she wouldn't.
scribd sucks ... no need to force people to be tracked
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I'll just fix that for you:
Appletards are naturally retarded, being unable to process any information that is not slavishly praising Apple, therefore it is quite natural that the Appletard would propagate a retarded myth.
While Apple makes a fuckton of profit, retail is normally very low margin. For example Target's profit margin is about 3.8%, and 3-4% is normally where it is around. That means that after you account all costs, the products, loss to theft, the stores, employees, taxes, etc, etc, etc there's 3-4% left over. That's fairly thin. Same deal with Safeway, about 1.2% currently. That means in those cases they actually can't increase operating costs much more before they'd slip in to unprofitability.
That is not to try and give companies a pass at being bad to employees but let's be a little realistic here. Retail is, in nearly all cases, a very thin profit margin. It isn't like they can just afford to massively increase costs, and not raise prices, because there is just not the extra to do that.
The actual law in this case is very very very CLEAR if you are required to be there you are required to be PAID
FULL STOP
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My wife worked at a chip fab. They had to be on the floor in their clean suits to "start" work and could not leave the floor until their shift was over. It took at least 15 minutes to dress and undress so they were losing 30 minutes of paid time a day. A law suit was filed and they won. Back pay was given and the policy changed. Since the dressing and undressing into special suits was part of the job and was provided and required, the company had to pay for that time to suit and unsuit.
Why would this practice have gone on long enough to create a class action suit? It's illegal, plain and simple. Since no employer/employee contract can override the law, so regardless of what a person supposedly agreed to participate in when they were hired, if they ever actually come out and say that the person isn't allowed to leave after their paid period has ended until they've been checked, it's just one simple call to the employment standards office afterwards to file a formal complaint. After they've been investigated for the practice, it's a fairly safe bet they won't be doing it again. If they need to inspect people before they leave, then any extra time that it takes them to take care of that had better be paid
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
More specifically, you can sue your employer for doing something that is against the law... which in this case would be not paying you for time that they are demanding from you as condition for employment. No employer/employee agreement can overrule what is actually permitted by law.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I jumped on with Apple Retail in early 2008. As it stands, Apple Retail has one of the better compensation packages for both fulltime and parttime employees. Medical/Dental/Vision, Stock Options, Paid Vacation, Etc. Before Steve Jobs left the company for the last time, he mandated that EVERY Apple Employee be eligible for Health Insurance. More recently, Tim Cook re-adjusted all of the pay compensations nationwide to be more in line with the higher paying/higher cost of living regions (NYC/LA/SF). That said, employees were discouraged from bringing bags into work. However, when bag checks were nessesary the managers at my store would do them WHILE you were clocking out. But that may vary store by store, as a result of this suit though, I imagine that Retail Chain Management will mandate that bag checks be done before or at clock-out, not after. So, benefits, awesome. Pay, not bad. Stock options, yes. BTW, the managers check each other's bags.
Everyone knows to get the stuff out the door you hide it in the boxes of trash and pick it up after work. I knew a guy who knew a guy that worked at BestBuy and had a very lucrative side business.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Sure Apple stole from Xerox Parc and flew a pirate flag above their office building.
Hippocracy.
Where I work, we have security cameras everywhere, we have to be escorted to the exit, a metal detector we have to go through, and bags are searched. The going through the metal detector and having bags searched is unpaid time, but usually goes pretty fast. If you don't want your bag searched, you leave it in the lockers.
I don't see why the apple employees just wouldn't leave all their stuff in their cars. It seems like a little common sense on both the management and employee side could have saved them all some trouble.