Dive Brief:

• A California district court approved a $30.4 million settlement agreement between Apple and a class of workers who were required to undergo off-the-clock bag searches. The settlement, approved Aug. 13, ends a legal ordeal that began nearly a decade ago (Frlekin v. Apple, Inc., No. 3:13-cv-03451, (N.D. Calif. Aug. 13, 2022)).
• The case dates back to a complaint filed in 2013 alleging Apple employees were made to undergo bag searches as a security measure when they left the store for meal breaks and after shifts — after clocking out. The process usually took 5-15 minutes, the complaint said, requiring approximately one hour per week of unpaid employee time. The class-action suit charged the lack of compensation during these processes was a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and California labor law. In 2020, the California Supreme Court found in the plaintiffs’ favor; the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed later that year.
• The bulk of Apple’s settlement (approximately $20.5 million) will be paid out as individual payments to the 14,678 members of the class action, resulting in an approximate net payment per class member of $1,328, according to court documents. The remaining third will pay for attorneys’ fees, litigation costs and other payments.

Dive Insight:

The end of Apple’s nearly decadelong case offers an expensive lesson in abiding by wage and hour laws, both federal and state. The road to the final decision was winding, however, with...

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