Apple store and logo seen in Hong Kong. (Photo by Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Apple has agreed to pay $29.9 million (approximately R460 million) to employees in its stores, who are forced to undergo safety bag inspections after shifts or when they leave work during shifts.
Workers’ lawyers asked a federal judge on Friday to approve the settlement, which was reached after eight years of legal battles.
Apple Store employees filed a class action lawsuit in 2013, claiming that the company violated California law and did not pay them to check their luggage.
Apple claims that in order to ensure that workers do not hide stolen electronic devices in their bags, it is necessary to conduct baggage searches, and argued in court that anyone who does not like this policy can choose not to bring their bags to work. .
The lawsuit only involves employees of 52 Apple stores in California. The class includes 14,683 workers; the lawyer said in court documents that each person will receive $1,286 from the settlement.
In 2015, a judge approved Apple’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. But last year when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Apple must pay employees to check luggage, it resumed.
Apple declined to comment on the settlement. The company stated in the agreement that it terminated its cheque policy in December 2015.
The case is Frlekin v. Apple, 13-cv-03451, District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco).
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