Judge approves Apple's $30M employee bag check lawsuit settlement
Apple's bid to pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit over employee bag checks has been approved by a U.S. District Court judge on Monday, ending a nearly decade-long legal battle.
Apple retail
The settlement was approved by Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. With it, Apple is closing the book on a long-running lawsuit that was first filed in 2013.
"The Court finds that the Settlement offers significant monetary recovery to all Participating Settlement Class Members, and finds that such recovery is fair, reasonable, and adequate when balanced against the risk of further litigation related to damages issues," Alsup wrote in his approval.
The complaint stems from a retail policy requiring Apple staff to have their bags and personal belongings checked before clocking out for work. It originally argued that staff members should be paid for the time spent undergoing security checks, which could sometime last as long as 45 minutes after their shifts ended.
Apple has since ceased that policy. Back in 2015, the lawsuit revealed that Apple CEO Tim Cook has unaware of the policy.
Although the original class-action lawsuit was dismissed in 2015, the decision was appealed. The legal battle peaked in February 2020, when the California Supreme Court ruled that Apple must pay employees for the time spent in security checks.
The $30.5 million settlement will be paid out to a class that includes 14,683 Apple employees residing in California. It marks the largest settlement in a security search case in the history of the state.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple retail
The settlement was approved by Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. With it, Apple is closing the book on a long-running lawsuit that was first filed in 2013.
"The Court finds that the Settlement offers significant monetary recovery to all Participating Settlement Class Members, and finds that such recovery is fair, reasonable, and adequate when balanced against the risk of further litigation related to damages issues," Alsup wrote in his approval.
The complaint stems from a retail policy requiring Apple staff to have their bags and personal belongings checked before clocking out for work. It originally argued that staff members should be paid for the time spent undergoing security checks, which could sometime last as long as 45 minutes after their shifts ended.
Apple has since ceased that policy. Back in 2015, the lawsuit revealed that Apple CEO Tim Cook has unaware of the policy.
Although the original class-action lawsuit was dismissed in 2015, the decision was appealed. The legal battle peaked in February 2020, when the California Supreme Court ruled that Apple must pay employees for the time spent in security checks.
The $30.5 million settlement will be paid out to a class that includes 14,683 Apple employees residing in California. It marks the largest settlement in a security search case in the history of the state.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
So the lawyers get a big payday. If they didn't, what are the odds that they'd take up the fight? Far less. The victims get a pittance but the bigger takeaway is some egregious practice is usually stopped. Regardless of how little (or how much) time an employee might have been lost, it's insulting at best to have an employer doing a bag check on your dime! Even more so when you realize it's ok to inconvenience you every day at the end of your shift, because it saves them $Millions per year.
I don't know that class action lawyers deserve the fees they get, considering their clients seldom get a reimbursement equal to their loss. The whole class action process is often something of a farce. But if a practice is discontinued or made fair to all involved, that's still a win.