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A woman holds a bag and a tablet.The California Supreme Court has ruled that Apple must pay employees for bag checks that the company requires before employees leave the store for the day.

According to the Los Angeles Times, numerous Apple retail workers filed a class action lawsuit in 2013 against Apple. The employees claimed they were required to be searched before they left work, but that Apple failed to compensate employees for that time. The workers claim that they were still under the control of Apple during the five- to twenty-minute process of having their bags checked and should be paid for that time.

The court ruled that lost employee wages will have to be paid retroactively to July 25, 2009 and the decision could apply to more than 12,000 workers.

The Apple employees’ bag checks lawsuit was dismissed in 2015. The federal court judge ruled that Apple workers had to prove that they were not stopped from leaving the building and that there was not a way to avoid have their personal items looked at. 

However, the case was appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which asked the California Supreme Court to weigh in about whether California state law would require companies to pay employees for bag checks.

According to California law, employees are to be paid for all of the hours that they work. The question involves Wage Order 7-2001 which was issued by California’s Industrial Welfare Commission. The Wage Order at issue makes sure that workers are paid for all “hours worked”, which is defined as time spent under an employer’s control.

The employees argued in their Apple class action lawsuit that the company is required to pay employees for bag checks because the company exerts control over them during the inspections. The California Supreme Court agreed.

“We conclude that plaintiffs’ time spent on Apple’s premises waiting for, and undergoing, mandatory exit searches of bags, packages, or personal Apple technology devices, such as iPhones, voluntarily brought to work purely for personal convenience is compensable as ‘hours worked’ within the meaning of [Industrial Welfare Commission] Wage Order 7,” opined the Supreme Court.

The Apple policy requires retail workers to submit to searches of their bags, backpacks and personal Apple iphones, and that failure to obey could lead to termination. 9to5Mac reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook was not aware that the bag check policy was in place. He was informed of it via two employees in an email, which he forwarded to his HR executives with a note asking if the email was true.

Apple argued that retail employees can avoid these searches by not bringing in bags or personal Apple items with them to work. The court called a ban on bringing personal item to work as “draconian” and stated that workers may need to bring ordinary items with them to work, such as keys, cell phones, and eyeglasses.

The case will now return to the Circuit Court and the federal judges will apply the California Supreme Court ruling to their opinion.

The Apple Employees Bag Check Lawsuit is Case No. S243805, in the Supreme Court of California.

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