Apple Case Over Labor Code Is Granted Class-Action Status

A state court in California has granted class certification to nearly 21,000 current and former Apple employees over claims that the company failed to provide timely meal and rest breaks as required by the law, and sometimes denied workers rest breaks altogether. 

In a ruling late Monday, Judge Ronald S. Prager of the Superior Court of California for the County of San Diego granted the class certification for a large group of retail employees and workers at corporate headquarters. 

Under California law, employers are generally required to provide 30-minute lunch breaks within an employee’s first five hours at work each day and provide a 10-minute rest break every four hours or major fraction thereof. In addition, California law requires employers to provide a second rest break for shifts that run six to 10 hours, and Judge Prager wrote that the evidence showed that Apple had failed to authorized second rest breaks under these circumstances. Continue reading the main story

“The common thread here is Apple’s formal policy did not provide for meal periods and rest periods on a timely basis,” said Tyler J. Belong, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. 

Judge Prager noted that Apple adopted a new policy in August 2012 that sought to comply with the law — nine months after the lawsuit was filed. The case covers violations said to have occurred from December 2007 to August 2012.

Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company declined to comment. During the litigation, Apple has said it provided its workers with timely meal breaks and that its scheduling practices did not cause late meal or rest breaks. 

Legal experts said that the case could seek into the tens of millions of dollars. Under California law, employers are required to compensate workers with an extra hour of pay each time that meal or rest breaks are not given on a timely basis or are not provided at all.

Judge Prager noted that Apple had no record of any class member receiving compensation for having missed a meal break or rest break before November 2012.

Judge Prager concluded that a class action would be a more effective way to handle these claims when the cost of litigating individual suits would be high. 

“A class action is the only feasible method to fairly and efficiently adjudicate these claims,” he wrote. “An individual class member cannot economically afford to litigate a case that has such little economic upside for him or her, but such great economic downside for defendant.”

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