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French Apple Stores prohibited from making employees work after hours, fined 10K euros

The Apple Store Carré Sénart. | Source: Apple

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Seven Apple Stores in France can no longer force employees to work after doors close, as a Paris court has banned the company from such activity following complaints from labor unions.


The French language report from AFP, first spotted by The Verge, also notes that Apple must pay 10,000 euros, roughly $13,000, in damages to the workers' unions, while an additional 50,000 euro, or $65,000, fine will be levied for every subsequent violation.

French law states that night work, defined as the hours between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., is reserved for exceptional cases only and must thus be justified. While Apple Retail outlets shutter their doors at 9 p.m., it was common for employees to continue working for an additional two hours to cleanup and prepare for the next day. For its part, the company said that after hours work was unusual and denied any wrongdoing.

Apple Stores affected by the judgment include the following locations: l'Opéra in Paris, Parly 2 in Le Chesnay, Carré Sénart in Lieusaint, Val d'Europe in Marne-la-Vallee, Cape Town 3000 in Nice, and Atlantis in Saint Herblain.

A further ruling from a higher French court is expected to be handed down on April 16.



79 Comments

jimothy 13 Years · 3 comments

It won't be long before France bans working altogether. Beautiful country. Terribly screwed up labor laws.

lilgto64 20 Years · 1146 comments

Easy fix - store business hours are now 7 am to 8 pm - and employees still work 6 to 9. And then the consumers rage about how inconvenient the hours are.

 

Reminds me of the behinds the scenes footage from a TV show that was filmed part of each season in France - any of the local workers operating cameras etc would simply stop working at (either 5 pm or 6 pm, can't recall which it was) regardless of where they were in the production schedule and impending deadlines. 

 

Also movies filmed there - for a night scene it is easy to black out the windows in a building or hang tarps in an outdoor setting to simulate night than to get a film crew to actually film at night. 

 

And they call American's lazy - not that there aren't bums likely everywhere - but everyone I know works their ass off. 

philboogie 16 Years · 7669 comments

[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/156438/french-apple-stores-prohibited-from-making-employees-work-after-hours-fined-10k-euros#post_2292366"]The Apple Store Carr? S?nart.[/quote] Mon Dieu!

drblank 19 Years · 3385 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by jimothy 

It won't be long before France bans working altogether. Beautiful country. Terribly screwed up labor laws.

No kidding.  Retail has certain things that employees have to do before and after the doors are open to allow customers to walk in.  Retail is demanding on employees from a hourly perspective which is why many pay by the hour.  But if they are a salaried employee, then expect certain hours and that may include working before and/or after the doors are open for the public.  It may be cleaning up and setting up, rearranging the floor, back stock, etc.  Most retail stores don't like rearranging the floor while open for business since it detracts from helping the customer.

 

France does have a screwed up labor law.

techguy911 14 Years · 269 comments

In the same way that China and some other 3rd world countries give too much power to corporations and don't have good labor laws, France is an example of when labor unions have too much power.

 

There is always this never ending struggle between two sides on lots of issues where there is no limit to how far one side will go.  No common sense, no empathy for the other side, no concept of being content, you always need more for your side.  Sometimes the struggle produces a good split for each party, but often not.  But there are many people that believe that the 'market' with selfish producers and selfish consumers will somehow magically find a balance.