Why it matters: Apple store employees made headlines last year after successfully unionizing at the company’s Towson, Maryland location. The Apple Coalition of Retail Employees (AppleCORE) was established to ensure that Apple management teams acknowledge employee rights by including them in negotiations on issues such as pay, scheduling, and professional development. According to a recently reported proposal, employees are now looking for tips for their time spent providing customer service.
AppleCORE will be negotiating their proposed requests with the company’s labor representatives later this week. The new proposal, as previously reported by Bloomberg, includes several requests to address employee compensation and leave issues. One of those requests, however, has started raising eyebrows ever since it was announced.
In an effort to address employee concerns about profit sharing and bonus structures, the group has requested the addition of an optional tipping system on in-store credit card purchases. The system would allow (and some would argue even encourage) Apple store customers to include tips in increments of 3%, 5%, or any other custom amount they see fit based on the service received.
Upon being questioned about the decision, AppleCORE’s representatives said they “…thought adopting a model already used by other workers who provide services to their community might be the simplest to implement.” The tips would be distributed to bargaining unit employees on a bi-weekly basis based on the number of hours worked.
