The court said that the while Apple does “restrain the employee’s action during the activity in question”, the searches aren’t mandatory and employees do not need to bring bags into the store. According to a report out of Bloomberg, a San Francisco judge has today sided with Apple in the case, saying employees could have easily avoided the checks. The searches, they insist, should be compensated as overtime pay because of the extra minutes they spent before going home or during lunchbreak while waiting for the routine security measure to be completed.
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The case began in 2013, when plaintiffs Amanda Frlekin and Dean Pelle – former Apple Store employees – complained that Apple searched employees’ bags every time store workers left an outlet, to discourage merchandise theft. The decision in favor of Apple disappointed the employees, says plaintiffs lawyer Lee Shalov.
“Apple could have alleviated [theft concerns] by prohibiting its employees from bringing personal bags or personal Apple devices into the store”, US district judge William Alsup wrote.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Surprisingly, CEO Tim Cook said a few months ago that he didn’t know that retail locations were performing bag searches for workers, but nevertheless, no policy change has since been made.
“Instead, Apple took the lesser step of giving its employees the optional benefit of bringing such items to work, which comes with the condition that they must undergo searches in a manner dictated by Apple before they exit the store”, the judge further explained.
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The ruling frees Apple from the long-running class action suit covering former and current employees throughout California, who objected to the bag checks at meal breaks and after their shifts.
