Four employees suing Apple turned the case into a class-action lawsuit Tuesday, now involving 20,000 current and former Apple employees in the U.S. and China.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2011, is claiming Apple failed to provide rest periods, meal periods, wages upon termination and wage statements, while also conducting “unfair business practices.”
TechCrunch reports Apple faced a class-action lawsuit in 2013 when employees claimed they weren’t being paid while waiting to clock out or go through security.
Earlier this year, Apple and Google settled a $325 million lawsuit over wage-fixing. Now Apple will be forced to deal with more unhappy employees — in fact, Apple will be dealing with all of them.
Tyler Belong, lawyer at the San Diego firm Hogue & Belong, told TechCrunch that because the case is now class-action, this will escalate consequences of the case.
“Just yesterday, after years of litigation, against Apple’s opposition, and after voluminous briefing and lengthy oral argument, the California Superior Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion and certified the case as a class action, appointing Plaintiffs and Plaintiffs’ counsel (Hogue & Belong) as the class representatives and class counsel on behalf of approximately 20,000 Apple employees,” Belong told TechCrunch. “In other words, as of yesterday’s ruling, Apple now faces claims of meal period, rest period and final pay violations affecting approximately 20,000 current and former Apple employees.”
According to TechCrunch, the plaintiffs have yet to demand financial compensation.