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Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

latimes.com

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Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#11

Post by egypturnash »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #7

Note this is in California. At the US, level, 5 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Amazon did not have to pay its workers for the time spent waiting for screening. Excerpt from the NY Times article about that decision: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that a temp agency was not required to pay workers at Amazon warehouses for the time they spent waiting to go through a security screeni…

ugh, one more reason to add to the pile of reasons to not give my money to Amazon.

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#12

Post by megous »

"A federal district court judge ruled in favor of Apple, deciding that workers had to prove they not only were restrained from leaving but that there was no way to avoid having personal items searched."

So workers that would not have a personal bag would avoid a search? You can take away stuff from the store by hiding it in your clothes, I guess unless you're working naked. How would anyone be able to avoid the search?

Am I missing something?

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#13

Post by mzs »

whalesalad wrote: post #6

Seriously?!? When I worked at Apple Retail it took all of 10 seconds for the security search. This was at one of the busiest stores in the nation and during the booming period of the iPhone 3/4. EDIT: Y'all are completely smokin me with these downvotes. I am not against this decision, I am just surprised that the issue grew to be this severe.

>Employees are supposed to find a manager or security officer to do the searches after they clock out. Employees estimate that waiting for and undergoing the searches can take five to 20 minutes, or, on busiest days, up to 45 minutes.

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#14

Post by addicted »

whalesalad wrote: post #6

Seriously?!? When I worked at Apple Retail it took all of 10 seconds for the security search. This was at one of the busiest stores in the nation and during the booming period of the iPhone 3/4. EDIT: Y'all are completely smokin me with these downvotes. I am not against this decision, I am just surprised that the issue grew to be this severe.

Well then they can pay for 10 seconds of work. If Apple is that efficient then this will cost them nothing and it’s a wonder why they fought it in court in the first place. At that efficiency a 100,000 workers would cost them 250 hrs a day. So Apple went to court to avoid paying $5000/day? They went to court to avoid paying people 5c more per day. Right.

Clearly in many cases the Apple stores aren’t that efficient which is why this has come up in the first place.

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#15

Post by jrockway »

> Employees are supposed to find a manager or security officer to do the searches after they clock out. Employees estimate that waiting for and undergoing the searches can take five to 20 minutes, or, on busiest days, up to 45 minutes.

This also seems to be their process for picking up orders at the store. It's pure chaos, and I find it at least somewhat amusing that at least Apple treats their employees and customers identically.

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#16

Post by michaelhoffman »

olliej wrote: post #4

Omg, I still can't believe that was in any doubt. If you are required to be at work, then you should be paid for that time. Just because you aren't "working" does change that the business is requiring you to be there. If nothing else this should push them to make leaving work not take 20- 45 minutes. WTF. How does anyone think it's acceptable to [funcitonally] detain people.

Apple argues that it's not required because you aren't required to be searched, it's only if an employee freely chooses to use the ~~~privilege~~~ of taking your personal items to work that they are searched. You can always come to work with nothing and not be searched.

I think this argument is BS and it looks like so did the California Supreme Court. Apple argues that this choice is of benefit only to the employees but without it I think they'd have a much harder time keeping employees.

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#17

Post by alain_gilbert »

whalesalad wrote: post #6

Seriously?!? When I worked at Apple Retail it took all of 10 seconds for the security search. This was at one of the busiest stores in the nation and during the booming period of the iPhone 3/4. EDIT: Y'all are completely smokin me with these downvotes. I am not against this decision, I am just surprised that the issue grew to be this severe.

lol, I guess apple shouldn't care too much about paying them for the 10 seconds then.

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#18

Post by mzs »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #7

Note this is in California. At the US, level, 5 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Amazon did not have to pay its workers for the time spent waiting for screening. Excerpt from the NY Times article about that decision: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that a temp agency was not required to pay workers at Amazon warehouses for the time they spent waiting to go through a security screeni…

more context

>…The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case is now pending, asked the California Supreme Court to clarify whether state law requires compensation.

…

>A federal district court judge ruled in favor of Apple, deciding that workers had to prove they not only were restrained from leaving but that there was no way to avoid having personal items searched.

>Apple said it could prohibit employees from bringing any bags or personal Apple devices into its stores altogether but gave them that benefit. The California Supreme Court said a ban on any personal items would be “draconian.”

Re: Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules

#20

Post by modoc »

olliej wrote: post #4

Omg, I still can't believe that was in any doubt. If you are required to be at work, then you should be paid for that time. Just because you aren't "working" does change that the business is requiring you to be there. If nothing else this should push them to make leaving work not take 20- 45 minutes. WTF. How does anyone think it's acceptable to [funcitonally] detain people.

not saying its okay, but this has been standard practice at every retail store job I ever worked (mostly 20+ years ago). You clocked out in the back, and then had to wait to be searched and released in the front of the store. This isn't Apple being weird, this is amazingly common.
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