U.S. District Judge John Alsop told more than 12,000 Apple store employees on Saturday who were seeking overtime pay of over $1,400 per worker annually that the problem could have been avoided if they did not bring a bag to work.
The class action lawsuit stemmed from bag searches made by Apple supervisors, which the employees from 52 Apple stores in California said ate their time. The searches, they insist, should be compensated as overtime pay because of the extra minutes they spent before going home or during lunchbreak while waiting for the routine security measure to be completed.
Had the employees won, it would have cost Apple about $60 million, plus penalties, estimates Bloomberg. The decision in favor of Apple disappointed the employees, says plaintiffs lawyer Lee Shalov. He says the workers are studying their options, including filing an appeal.
Apple Insider explains that the Cupertino-based tech giant imposed the mandatory bag and device searches to prevent theft of expensive gadgets from the stores by store staff. In issuing his decision, Alsop says that the workers brought their personal things to the store willingly for personal convenience.
Alsop explains, "Our plaintiffs could all freely choose not to bring bags to work, thereby avoiding Apple's restrictions during exit searches. That free choice is fatal to their claims."
The lawsuit was given class action status in July. The employees filed the case in 2013 which Alsop initially dismissed in 2014 as Alsop cited a Supreme Court decision on a similar case involving employees of Amazon's warehouse.