Apple sued for not paying New York Apple Store staff weekly
An ex-Apple employee has launched a class-action suit against Apple, claiming the company broke New York employment by paying its employees every other week instead of weekly.
Filed on April 4, the attempted class action complaint by plaintiff Raven Ramos on behalf of all Apple employees in the state of New York "that engage or have engaged in manual work in the course of their employment" alleges that Apple has, and continues to, violate labor law in the state.
Under New York law, manual workers are required to be paid on a weekly basis, unless there is an express authorization from the New York State Department of Labor Commissioner allowing for payment to occur on a semi-monthly basis.
It is believed that Apple did not receive this authorization for its store staff, and that it paid wages every other week instead of weekly. The suit proposes that its store staff should be covered under the law, and therefore Apple was breaking it.
The lawsuit reckons that approximately 25% of the job responsibilities Ramos had would be classifiable as manual labor. These tasks included "working the sales floor, unboxing products, emptied cash registers, and assisted customers."
Ramos, who lives in Port Chester, was employed by Apple between October 2010 and January 2018, at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. Throughout that period, Apple only paid wages every other week, and not weekly -- like nearly every other retail establishment in the United States.
It is said Ramos is injured by the failure to pay wages weekly because "she was temporarily deprived of money owed to her," and that she "lost the time value of that money."
The suit claims the class covers at least 100 members, with the total claims of individual members of the class "well in excess" of $5 million.
In terms of what the class would seek to regain from Apple, it proposes the class is entitled to recover "the amount of their untimely paid wages as liquidated damages," as well as reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, and pre- and post-judgment interest. A numerical value for this supposed loss was not offered in the filing, but is probably expected to be upwards of $5 million.
Read on AppleInsider
Filed on April 4, the attempted class action complaint by plaintiff Raven Ramos on behalf of all Apple employees in the state of New York "that engage or have engaged in manual work in the course of their employment" alleges that Apple has, and continues to, violate labor law in the state.
Under New York law, manual workers are required to be paid on a weekly basis, unless there is an express authorization from the New York State Department of Labor Commissioner allowing for payment to occur on a semi-monthly basis.
It is believed that Apple did not receive this authorization for its store staff, and that it paid wages every other week instead of weekly. The suit proposes that its store staff should be covered under the law, and therefore Apple was breaking it.
The lawsuit reckons that approximately 25% of the job responsibilities Ramos had would be classifiable as manual labor. These tasks included "working the sales floor, unboxing products, emptied cash registers, and assisted customers."
Ramos, who lives in Port Chester, was employed by Apple between October 2010 and January 2018, at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. Throughout that period, Apple only paid wages every other week, and not weekly -- like nearly every other retail establishment in the United States.
It is said Ramos is injured by the failure to pay wages weekly because "she was temporarily deprived of money owed to her," and that she "lost the time value of that money."
The suit claims the class covers at least 100 members, with the total claims of individual members of the class "well in excess" of $5 million.
In terms of what the class would seek to regain from Apple, it proposes the class is entitled to recover "the amount of their untimely paid wages as liquidated damages," as well as reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, and pre- and post-judgment interest. A numerical value for this supposed loss was not offered in the filing, but is probably expected to be upwards of $5 million.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
opening boxes and emptying the cash register …..
Section 190(4) of the New York State Labor Law defines a “manual worker” as “a mechanic, workingman or laborer.” It has been the long-standing interpretation of this Department that individuals who spend more than 25% of working time engaged in “physical labor” fit within the meaning of the term “manual worker.” Furthermore, the term “physical labor” has been interpreted broadly to include countless physical tasks performed by employees.
https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/03/frequency-of-pay-frequently-asked-questions.pdf
I can't claim to have any in-depth knowledge of precedents involving what has previously qualified as manual labor in NY, but the "interpreted broadly" and "countless physical tasks" aspect of the wording make it sound like this is not necessarily a frivolous lawsuit. Long shot? Seems like it, but not without some merit.
Well, obviously. No response to the other substantive parts? Do you still think it's open and shut?
How is Apple “nickel and diming”? Employees are paid their full wages.
Imagine filing a lawsuit that states you want to pay your “insert monthly bill here” weekly, instead of monthly, because paying a large amount once a month is strenuous and you want to break it up into weekly payments, even though the dollar amount remains the same.
Fuck off with this bullshit. What are you, a world-class day trader that earns massive dividends on every dollar you make? You’re missing out on that big deal because you had to wait an extra week for your ‘full’ paycheque?
Put another way, bills are due every month. By hanging on to money for a month you’re depriving the company you owe money of the time & value of that money by waiting an entire month to pay them.
On the plus side, for the rest of Raven Ramos’ life, whenever a prospective employer googles their name, this will probably come up in the results.
If you don’t raise the issue within this “reasonable time” then you are said to have implicitly accepted the terms of your employment.
How can someone work for 8 years decide almost 4 years after they leave a company that they weren’t happy with the terms of their employment?
Better still, you should just be kicked out to spare us your diatribe.