A settlement reached in an Apple Store bag search dispute has been given provisional approval by a court. The judge said that the agreement was not perfect, but on balance it was good enough to be allowed to proceed.
The case related to the fact that Apple required retail store staff to submit to bag searches after they had clocked out, meaning that the 10-15 minutes they spent waiting inside the store for these searches was unpaid …
Background
The dispute dates all the way back to 2013, when retail staff complained at having to wait an extra 10-15 minutes after their shifts had ended in order to submit to bag searches and checks of their personal devices to protect against employee theft. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook expressed surprise when he learned of this policy.
An initial class action lawsuit failed, as did a second one in California, judges ruling that staff could choose not to bring bags and personal devices to work. However, the California Supreme Court reversed this, and told Apple that it must pay workers for the time lost.
