According to Bloomberg Law, Apple has agreed to pay $30.5 million to resolve a long-running complaint regarding employee bag checks. A judge has now officially approved the settlement amount after Apple initially agreed to it in November 2021.
14,683 California employees who were subjected to off-duty bag searches between July 25, 2009 and August 10, 2015 are parties to the class action case. In the class-action lawsuit, Apple was accused of subjecting workers to obligatory bag inspections that were "embarrassing and degrading," and because those checks took place after a shift, they had to stay at work for an additional 10 to 15 minutes without being paid.
Apple said that its bag inspections ensured workers weren't concealing stolen equipment in their personal things and that workers who didn't want to be exposed to searches may leave their bags at home, but that defence fell on deaf ears.
Apple launched a website in January where both current and past employees could learn about the settlement and file claims after the court decided, following many appeals, that the company had to compensate California employees for the time they had spent in bag searches.
