It’s understandable that giant retailers like Amazon wouldn’t want employees bringing anything home from work they shouldn’t. But much like a lawsuit Apple workers brought against that company for on-the-clock security searches, an employee of Amazon is bringing a class-action lawsuit against it alleging that workers have to go through daily, unpaid security procedures that cost them time and money.

Those searches eat into time the employees spend when they’re not supposed to be working, claims the Philadelphia-area warehouse worker who filed the suit, reports NBC News.

He’s looking for damages in excess of $50,000 for claims that workers at the facility where he works have to go through metal detectors and manual searches of their personal items, which can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes.

That screening process takes place both before lunch breaks and at the end of the day and aren’t paid during that time, says the suit.

“Defendants have never paid Warehouse Workers for time spent proceeding through this required post-shift screening process prior to exiting the Amazon Fulfillment Center,” the filing states. “As a result of the compensation practice utilized by Defendants, Warehouse Workers are not compensated for all time during which they were required to be on the premises of the Amazon Fulfillment Center.”

The man filed the suit on behalf of all the warehouse workers at the facility where he works, claiming that the company is violating the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act by forcing employees to go through that process without pay.

Employees have filed similar lawsuits in Nevada, Washington and Tennessee.

We’ve reached out to Amazon and will update this post with a comment when we hear back.

Worker sues Amazon over lengthy security searches without pay [NBC News] (Thanks for the tip, Bill!)

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