The former sales associates said they were kept after work in locked stores for as many as 30 minutes while their purses and bags were examined to make sure they weren't stealing. They were not paid for the time they were detained, the plaintiffs say.

One of the plaintiffs claims she missed a couple of trains having to wait for a manager to check her purse out. The Mountain View, Calif., resident worked at the Palo Alto store for five months in 2004.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, also says the retailer required employees to work many "off-the-clock" hours and improperly calculated how much they should be paid.

The lawsuit claims the retailer manipulated payroll records to make it look like the employees worked fewer hours than they did, failed to pay overtime and denied or discouraged rest breaks.

An attorney who represents employers acknowledges that it is not unreasonable for a company to search employees in stores after hours so long as workers aren't detained for long, especially if the retailer's goods are disappearing. "If there's a problem an employer is experiencing in terms of lost or stolen merchandise, companies are going to look to try to control that," he continued. Five minutes would seem reasonable, but a half-hour might not, said the attorney.

Two former workers that are plaintiffs in the case, state that workers were detained five minutes to 30 minutes and that the typical delay was about 15 minutes.
One of the workers quit after her employer failed to pay her an appropriate commission.

The plaintiffs are seeking unpaid wages, penalties and unspecified punitive damages.

The lawsuit seeks any current or former employee of a Ralph Lauren Corp. store that was not properly paid for the time worked.