After eight years, Apple has settled a lawsuit for $29.9 million with retail employees. The case was filed by retail employees in 2013 against the company policy of checking their bags, when they left work or during their shifts. Bloomberg reports that the lawyer of Apple Store employees claimed that the forced security bag checks were in violation of California law because the company did not pay the employees for the time it took to check their bags.
[Update: Bloomberg reports that Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California has finally approved the $30.5 million settlement which resolves the nine years old class action lawsuit. Apple has not tossed the controversial requirement for employees to get their bags checked at clocking out.]
Apple to pay employees of 52 retail stores in California as settlement of an eight-year-long lawsuit
The Cupertino tech giant argued in court that security bag checks were necessary to search for hidden stolen electronic devices. And employees unhappy with the policy could have chosen not to bring bags to work.
However, after eight long years, the lawsuit ended with a settlement when Ninth Circuit Court that the Cupertino tech giant has to pay the employees for the time it took to check their bags. As per the report, the $30 million settlement amount will be distributed amongst 14, 683 retail workers in 52 stores in California. Each employee will receive $1,286 after the judge approves the settlement terms.
The lawsuit only covered workers at California’s 52 Apple stores. The class includes 14,683 workers; each will get $1,286 from the settlement, the lawyers said in the court filing.
In 2015, a judge granted Apple’s request to toss the lawsuit. But it was revived last year when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Apple was required to pay employees for the time they spent having their bags checked.
Recently, the company settled two lawsuits with huge settlement amounts. In August, Apple resolved a resolve a class-action lawsuit from US developers by agreeing to change certain App Store policies and establishing a $100 million fund for small developers who were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In October, the company agreed to a $95 million settlement for the class-action lawsuit accusing it of providing a refurbished device as a replacement unit, instead of giving a new device.
