Apple Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit Over Employee Bag Checks

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. According to a report out of Bloomberg, a San Francisco judge has today sided with Apple in the case, saying employees could have easily avoided the checks.

The retail employees’ lawsuit, brought in 2013 by two former workers from Apple stores in New York and Los Angeles, claimed employees at Apple’s brick-and-mortar Apple Stores were required to stand in lines up to 30 minutes long every day for store managers to check their bags and ensure they weren’t smuggling home stolen goods.

“Apple could have alleviated [theft concerns] by prohibiting its employees from bringing personal bags or personal Apple devices into the store”, USA district judge William Alsup wrote. “Plaintiffs are disappointed in the court’s ruling and are exploring their options, including an appeal”, said Lee Shalov, a lawyer for the workers.

Apple representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

Plaintiffs Amanda Friekin and Dean Pelle stated that the company was very strict regarding these searches and would check an employee even if they left the premises for lunch.

The judge, however, claimed that Apple can’t be forced to pay extra for the bag searches, simply because workers do not necessarily have to bring a bag to work.

“Instead, Apple took the lesser step of giving its employees the optional benefit of bringing such items to work, which comes with the condition that they must undergo searches”. Apple defeated a USA class action lawsuit brought by Apple retail workers over bag searches policies on Saturday, November 2, 2015.

These employees of the tech giant had filed a lawsuit against Apple but unfortunately for them, Apple has won the case.