A decade-old lawsuit is finally seeing a resolution, with Apple agreeing to pay A$43.5 million to 15,000 Californian retail workers who claimed they were owed backpay for time spent in security checks after each shift.
The 2013 class action was finally settled under US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco, who approved the amount.
The California Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that state law requires employees to be paid for the time they spend in mandatory security screenings.
Amazon and Walmart are facing similar lawsuits at the moment. Amazon has already settled one such suit, agreeing to pay A$12.4 million to 42,000 warehouse workers.
Alsup originally dismissed the Apple case in 2015, ruling workers were not officially under the company’s control during these security checks, as they were not required to bring personal items such as bags to work that would require a search.
The California Supreme Court overturned this upon appeal, saying it was impractical to expect employees not to bring personal belongings to work.