Apple Inc. has agreed to pay $29.9 million to retail employees who were subjected to off-the-clock security bag checks as they left work after or during their shifts. On Friday, attorneys for the workers urged a federal judge to approve the deal, which came after an eight-year legal struggle. Employees at the Apple Store launched a class-action complaint in 2013, alleging that the company was breaking California law by not compensating them for the time it took to inspect their bags. Apple maintained in court that the bag inspections were required to ensure that employees were not concealing stolen electronic items in their bags, and that anyone who didn't like the policy could opt out.

The complaint only applied to employees at Apple's 52 locations in California. The settlement will pay $1,286 to each of the 14,683 workers in the class, according to the lawyers' court filing. A judge granted Apple's motion to dismiss the lawsuit in 2015. However, the case was renewed last year when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Apple had to compensate employees for the time they spent having their luggage scrutinized.

Apple did not immediately reply to requests for comment via email or phone.

Frlekin v. Apple, 13-cv-03451, United States District Court, Northern District of California is the case (San Francisco).