Apple Workers File Lawsuit Over Lost Wages Due to Bag Searches

Two ex-Apple employees at Apple Stores in New York and Los Angeles — Amanda Frlekin and Dean Pelle — are suing their former employer in San Francisco claiming Apple store workers are deprived of roughly $1,500 a year in unpaid wages.

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As the filing obtained by GigaOm reads, Apple hourly employees undergo two-off-the clock security bag searches and clearance checks when they leave for their meal breaks and after they have clocked out at the end of their shifts.

The bag searches are a uniform practice and policy at all Apple retail stores nationwide, and it has been in practice for years.

The former employees claim that Apple’s “personal package and bag search” policy results in staff being forced to stand around for 5 to 15 minutes every time they clock out for a meal break or leave work at the end of their shift.

The employees’ major complaint is that these security checks are uncompensated, so this class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf on them and other Apple employees working on an hourly basis, with the aim to recover unpaid wages, overtime compensation, penalties, interest , injunctive relief, unspecified damages, and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, under the Fair Labor Standard Act.

The San Francisco lawsuit comes on top of the China Labor Watch report that claims that Apple’s supplier, Pegatron’s three facilities violate the human rights of the workers.

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