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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

#31

Post by eropple »

matz1 wrote: post #21
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.

>How does anyone think it's acceptable to [funcitonally] detain people From the business perspective, provided they can get a way with it, it is just another business decision, namely reducing cost and increasing profit. I would do the same.

Alternatively, you could treat people like people and give them an actual measure of respect instead of stealing time and money from them.

But, frankly, literally every time without exception that I remember seeing you post, it's been a variation on the theme of "of course they shouldn't be decent, why should they, I shouldn't have to be decent either", so I'm going to pass on being surprised.

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

#32

Post by hobs »

danso wrote: post #26
jrockway wrote: post #15

> 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 customer…

Really? (this is more of a genuine huh than a rhetorical huh) I guess I have relatively low expectations as a customer, but my most recent experience was picking up a laptop fixed up by AppleCare and I had to wait about 5 minutes for people ahead of me, but an employee found a place for me to sit and wait, and directed the relevant laptop-service employee to me when he was available. It seemed like a reasonable in-st…

It depends greatly on your apple retail store location, many of them are fairly tight run little ships, but some (say my local fashion island location) seemingly are huge groups of people milling about - I waited 30+ minutes so that an equivalent of a retail store clerk would let me buy a computer I had no questions about.

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

#33

Post by JohnFen »

matz1 wrote: post #21
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.

>How does anyone think it's acceptable to [funcitonally] detain people From the business perspective, provided they can get a way with it, it is just another business decision, namely reducing cost and increasing profit. I would do the same.

> it is just another business decision, namely reducing cost and increasing profit.

And effectively stealing from their employees.

> I would do the same.

You would steal from your employees too?

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

#34

Post by salehenrahman »

pier25 wrote: post #3

Is this common in the US? (retail workers being searched)

I don't know about in the US, but in Canada, I used to work at Forever 21—a California-based retail chain—and you are required to go through a pat-down right before you leave the store.

You'd have to look for a manager, and ask them to escort you to the front of the store, and have them pat you down.

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

#35

Post by topkai22 »

danso wrote: post #26
jrockway wrote: post #15

> 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 customer…

Really? (this is more of a genuine huh than a rhetorical huh) I guess I have relatively low expectations as a customer, but my most recent experience was picking up a laptop fixed up by AppleCare and I had to wait about 5 minutes for people ahead of me, but an employee found a place for me to sit and wait, and directed the relevant laptop-service employee to me when he was available. It seemed like a reasonable in-st…

I was asked to wait 45 minutes to pick up a bought and paid for phone.

I left and came back later and found a more reasonable sales person, but still ended up waiting about 10 minutes.

Then there was the time I made a service appointment, showed up slightly before my appointment, and waited 35 minutes for a “genius” to look at my phone.

I don’t know if it’s just my local store, but I avoid Apple stores as much as I can now.

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

#36

Post by EdwardDiego »

michaelhoffman wrote: post #16
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…

I love how they call it a privilege. This is indeed a boring dystopia.

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

#37

Post by dickjocke »

salehenrahman wrote: post #34
pier25 wrote: post #3

Is this common in the US? (retail workers being searched)

I don't know about in the US, but in Canada, I used to work at Forever 21—a California-based retail chain—and you are required to go through a pat-down right before you leave the store. You'd have to look for a manager, and ask them to escort you to the front of the store, and have them pat you down.

Thats interesting, I worked at a Forever 21 in the US ten years ago. They policy was that they would "look" (really just glance into) bags, but never actually touch people.

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

#39

Post by Spooky23 »

danso wrote: post #26
jrockway wrote: post #15

> 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 customer…

Really? (this is more of a genuine huh than a rhetorical huh) I guess I have relatively low expectations as a customer, but my most recent experience was picking up a laptop fixed up by AppleCare and I had to wait about 5 minutes for people ahead of me, but an employee found a place for me to sit and wait, and directed the relevant laptop-service employee to me when he was available. It seemed like a reasonable in-st…

Apple really broke the stores with their reengineering process.

The store in my area is too small, always packed and too noisy. The employees are really good and make the experience bearable, but they really converted an awesome, friendly retail experience and made it stressful and inefficient.

The people who design the non-flagship stores don’t spend much time in them.

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

#40

Post by ranrotx »

pier25 wrote: post #3

Is this common in the US? (retail workers being searched)

Yes, sadly so. I worked as a vendor to a retail company. Every time I went to their office (which was attached to one of their facilities that held product) I had to undergo a bag check. I never had to do the bag check if I went to an office that wasn’t attached to a location with product in it.
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