A three-year-old lawsuit targeting Apple by former employees at its retail and corporate locations has been certified by the California Superior Court, and given class-action status. Filed in 2011 by Brandon Felczer — who spent about a year working for Apple — (along with three others), the complaint accuses the company of violating California labor codes by not providing time for employees to eat, rest, see itemized wage statements, or get paid in a reasonable amount of time after employment ended.

The claims could go back to 2007

According to the suit, the employees would regularly go "over five straight hours" without a meal or break, which should have resulted in an extra hour of compensation. The complaint is effectively asking for backpay on these periods, citing California Labor Codes, as well as asking for them to be applied to other former workers who were in similar situations going all the way back to December 16th, 2007.

Per Recode, the lawsuit could be open to around 20,000 Apple employees in California if and when it makes it to a jury trial. Apple did not immediately respond to comment on the complaint.

The lawsuit is not to be confused with a separate compensation lawsuit involving Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe, which involved secret agreements to keep employee wages artificially low. That suit originally asked for $9 billion in damages, and gained class-action status last October. It was settled back in April after the companies agreed to pay a considerably smaller $324.5 million.