Apple Germany won this years Big Brother Award 2013 for oppression of the workforce.

http://www.heise.de/mac-and-i/meldung/N ... 41840.html

Digital Courage e.V., the group that gives out the awards said that the award was given, because Apple goes beyond what is normally legal in Germany.

The award was awarded, because as well as CCTV cameras in the sales area and the store room, which is allowed, but also in the rest rooms, changing rooms, the managers office, "Genius Room", where repairs are made, which is not allowed. Each employee had to sign an additional waiver, giving away their rights to privacy.

Apple gave a statement refuting the claim, saying that the cameras are there to protect the public and employees.

I suspect this is another one of those cases where a large American company assumes business practices which are allowed in the US are allowed everywhere and they don't even bother to check if they're breaking the law in other countries in whih they operate. Less malicious and more just lazy. I would hope they get prosecuted, the cameras get removed and the employees compensated.

That they made the employees sign a waiver sounds like they knew they were in the wrong...

A waiver doesn't save you if you're doing something illegal. If they know it was illegal, they would know that getting people to sign things was pointless so they wouldn't have bothered. It would be pertinent to check if the employees in the US & etc are required to sign similar waivers too.

It might have been in 5 point on page 36 of the contract of employment, under definitions.


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