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Apple in Hot Water Over Lawsuit Alleging Labor Violations

Apple may have some serious explaining to do as one former employee is shedding light on some serious violations of employee rights.

As a network engineer at Apple for over a decade, David Walsh has pretty much seen it all. Yet now, it seems that he has reached his breaking point with the company that has built a reputation on overworking their engineers, as he has made claims that workers are not being compensated for mandatory overtime work.

Walsh has since filed a class action lawsuit against the Cupertino based company, citing that Apple has manipulated various job titles designated to IT workers which has made them exempt from federal overtime pay as well as numerous other rights delegated by federal and California law.

The suit details that Apple’s IT employees are often required to work days exceeding 8 hours as well as weeks of over 40 hours of labor. Many are additionally required to be on call 24 hours a day for periods of up to a week, and any work that is put in while on call is not compensated. The final kicker may be the fact that these employees are often denied breaks as the law mandates.

Walsh insists that while, “federal law provides exemption for employees in management or supervisory roles,” the job titles have been manipulated to appear otherwise, even though all work is directed and requires initial approval by management. The lawsuit itself, cites violations of Federal Labor and Standards Act as well as California Labor Code and Industrial Workers Wage Order Requirements.

It is not surprising that employees who are worked to the bone that are not appropriately compensated will inevitably reach their brink. Whether there is an element of truth to these allegations or not has yet to be determined. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to these accusations, as a company that is sitting on over $20 billion in the bank, will not be looked well upon if their employees federally granted rights are not even being met.

[via ArsTechnica]