• By
  • Jeff Elder


Apple Inc. is now facing another class-action lawsuit from its workers, as 20,000 hourly wage employees claim the computer company didn’t give them lunch breaks, rest breaks or final paychecks in accordance with California law.

The suit over breaks and paychecks was certified as a class-action case Monday in California Superior Court after being filed originally in 2011. The hourly wage workers, who range from junior engineers to Apple Store employees and call-center representatives, argue Apple deliberately violated California wage and hour laws.

“Very often workers were not given meal breaks for seven or eight hours, and sometimes not at all,” said the plaintiffs’ counsel Tyler Belong. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case also claims the company’s policies “allowed Apple to invoke fear into the class members that if they so much as discuss the various labor policies, they run the risk of being fired, sued, or disciplined.”

The case, which does not yet seek a dollar amount in damages, is Felczer v. Apple, No. 2011-00102593 in the San Diego courtroom of California Superior Court judge Ronald Prager.

In a separate case, Apple is defending itself against a class-action case by store workers who say they were not paid for time spent waiting for Apple security to check their personal bags each time they left a store. And Apple is a defendant in a large antitrust case in which tech workers claim four companies conspired to keep their wages down.


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