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.

Re:The incredible irony of..

[gl4ss]

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.

well, they're geniuses, so they might get sneaky!
how they think this isn't unpaid overtime though... it's pretty fucking obvious.

also, who is checking the managers bags? they must be managers only in title because I've never seen a real manager do shit like bag checks.

I have no sympathy

[cwebster]

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.

You're wrong on all counts.

[raehl]

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!

Re:The incredible irony of..

[gagol]

We caught an employee stealing many $K worth of specialized maple sap pumps at my job. There is no use for them nor black market for them (tracability and all). I would be more inclined to believe most stealing is caused by cleptomania than poverty. After all, all he stole was not worth more than 6 weeks of pay, and he could not move the stuff (we got it all back...).

Re:I have no sympathy

[whois]

They are actually, but every minute they're not paid has been negotiated by the airline unions. If you've ever had your flight delayed due to maintenance after they've pushed back from the gate? Yeah, that's an asshole pilot and cabin crew who knew the plane wasn't ready to fly, but wanted to start the clock on their paycheck.

They don't get paid until the doors are closed and they're away from the gate, so sitting on the runway with no air conditioning is better for them than delaying your boarding. I won't say they don't deserve to be paid, but inconveniencing 300 people to please 10 isn't the right way to do things. Then topping that with federal laws that don't allow people to get up and go to the bathroom, or turn their phones on because the plane is "taxiing" technically even though it's sitting there with the wheels off, or whatever they're doing to it.

Re:The incredible irony of..

[Sandra Mcgowan]

The department store I worked at had this same policy but only after half a dozen employees had tried to sneak out a few items in the past. They try to make it as painless as possible though. We had a locker room where we could store all our stuff and it was connected to the main floor. That way, they only had to give us a simple pat down when we entered and left the locker room and they did not need to check our bags anymore.

Re:The incredible irony of..

[Anonymous Coward]

I also worked retail - for about 4 years. "Shrink" was caused by both customers and employees. Employees often did it on a large scale - leaving boxes of items outside behind the cardboard bales while unloading trucks and picking them up after hours. "Customers" also did this - once stealing an entire hand truck of cigarettes that was ready to be stocked. But from my few years I probably saw an equal amount of customer and employee theft. Since there are more customers than employees - the employees were responsible for a much higher per-capita.