Complaints from labor unions has led to a Paris courtroom decision to hand seven Apple Stores in France a 10K euro fine. The complaint concerned French labor laws, which disallow companies to make employees work beyond 9pm, unless a justified reason is given, as this is defined as night work, which is reserved only for exceptional cases in France.
Of course, as with many retail businesses, this means that employees will tend to work beyond the stores’ closing time (which happens to be 9pm) to help prepare the shop for the next working day.
It’s because of this that the fines have been issued. However, despite this, Apple denied violation by saying this is not a common occurrence. What’s more, any post-judgement offence will land the offending store with a 50K euro fine. Ouch.
