Update: Apple Genius Employee Weighs in on Class Action Lawsuit

Last week we reported on a class action lawsuit filed by disgruntled Apple employees who work in “Genius Bar” positions. In the class action documents the employees claim, among other things, that Apple has a “consistent policy” of denying them mandatory paid rest breaks and of concealing how much money they miss out on from not being paid for these missed breaks.

Since our post, an Apple Genius who has worked for Apple for years contacted us with some inside information on the situation. He says the Genius Bar computer system schedules 15-minute time slots per customer for the Apple Genius to speak with, but doesn’t schedule breaks. Over the past one to two years, Apple has asked managers to use one of those 15-minute time slots as a break for the Genius, but the managers often forget to schedule it. When Geniuses clock out of the system at the end of their shift they receive a pop-up message telling them to contact HR if they didn’t receive a break, but most employees don’t bother because they’re afraid they’ll get “blacklisted” with their management team if HR comes down on their managers.

It seems Apple has been aware of the missed break problem for at least a couple years but has only made a mediocre attempt to fix the problem. Even in the midst of a class action lawsuit, Apple still hasn’t instituted automatic break scheduling into their Genius scheduling program. It seems like an easy fix to us.