Apple settled a long-running dispute over employee bag searches in November, agreeing to pay $29.9 million to employees exposed to off-the-clock bag inspections, and details about the settlement are now public on Apple’s website.
Employees in California originally sued Apple in 2013, and the case was expanded into a class action lawsuit in 2015. Employees alleged that Apple forced them to “embarrassing and degrading” required bag checks after the conclusion of a shift, leading them to stay an extra 10 to 15 minutes at work.
According to Apple, bag searches guarantee that staff are not concealing stolen equipment in their personal items. Apple claimed that employees who did not want to be subjected to bag searches could simply avoid bringing a bag to work, but this argument ultimately did not work for Apple, and in 2020, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Apple had to pay the employees for the time they were subjected to bag searches.
Apple and lawyers for Apple employees in California negotiated a deal last year and requested a judge to accept it in November. Apple has agreed to pay roughly $30 million, and the more than 14,000 employees involved in the action will be compensated based on the number of shifts worked. Apple will send emails and letters to current and past employees with particular information about their possible reimbursement amount.
The Apple Bag Check Class Action Settlement is described in detail on Apple’s legal website, with documentation available for California employees subjected to bag checks between July 25, 2009 and August 10, 2015.The bag search policy has been in place for a long time, and Apple has not conducted a bag search since 2015. The settlement’s Final Approval Hearing will be held on July 7, 2022.