In a relief to Apple employees, the California Supreme Court has asked the company to pay the staff for the time, they spend waiting for their personal belongings to be checked before leaving the workplace. This decision of the court suggests that the US tech giant will now have to pay millions of dollars to around 12,000 employees, who fall under the compulsory search policy.
The employees are required to clock out before their exit search which may take some time. Those who refused to go for search even have to face disciplinary action or even termination from the company.
Earlier, a lower court had sided with the company, saying that the time that employees spend in waiting for the search cannot be considered under the working hours as per laws under California. After the decision, plaintiffs moved the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which then urged the Supreme Court to address the issue.
In its order, the states high court had rejected Apple’s stand that employees could avoid searches by not bringing any iPhone or bag to office work
The court, while quoting the US Supreme Court, observed that mobiles are “now such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy,” AFP reported.
This case is the third the state high court heard in relation to minimum wages and time. A couple of years back the court had asked Starbucks to pay for off-the-clock work, like going through a checklist in order to close the store — that can take some time minutes more than somebody’s shift.
