Apple has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit filed by former and current employees claiming to have been denied rest periods as well as final pay checks by the tech giant.
Judge Ronald S. Prager of the San Diego Superior Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of the employees certifying the dispute as a class action suit. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2011 by former Apple employees working in retail and corporate, accuses the iPad maker of violating the California Labor Code by not offering “timely meal breaks, timely rest breaks, and timely final pay checks” to its employees.
One of the complaints filed under the California Labor Code cited employees were made to work for 5 hours straight without any meal break, while the other suggested Apple took several weeks to send a final check to multiple employees. The violations are said to have taken place between December 2007 to August 2012.
The judge said rather than presenting over 20,995 lawsuits on the same claims alleged in the action before the Labor Commissioner for hearings, a single class action lawsuit would allow all individual actions to be resolved at once on behalf of the claimants.
San Diego attorney Tyler J. Belong said the ruling allows his office to represent the interests and claims of approximately 20,000 employees who live in the state. The lawyers in the case are still deciding on fixing remedial monetary demands.
Apple is yet to comment on the ruling.
