Google, Apple and Others Accused of 'No Poaching' Deal

lightbox32 writes "According to the Wall Street Journal, several of the US's largest technology companies, which include Google, Apple, Intel, Adobe, Intuit and Pixar Animation, are in the final stages of negotiations with the Justice Department to avoid a court battle over whether they colluded to hold down wages by agreeing not to poach each other's employees. 'The Justice Department would have to convince a court not just that such accords existed, but that workers had suffered significant harm as a result. The companies may not want to take a chance in court. If the government wins, it could open the floodgates for private claimants, even a class action by employees. A settlement would allow the Justice Department to halt the practice, without the companies having to admit to any legal violations.'"

Comments

I'M GETTING PAID BITCHES!

[iamhassi]

YEAH! I worked for one of these companies and now I can sue for ONE BILLION DOLLARS because I was told I couldn't go work for one of those other companies after I was fired!

BENTLEY AND MANSIONS HERE I COME!

[/sarcasm]

Seriously though, it's not like employees were prevented from ever working again, there was just a short list of a few companies that were direct competitors they couldn't go work for. How does that not make sense? No one wants their Director-of-100-Million-Dollar-Project walking off one day because the main competitor offered him double to recreate the project.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard, I'm pretty sure if some big US government nuclear scientist decided to go work for North Korea because the pay was better he'd be called a spy, but Yahoo tries to prevent Director of Whatever from working at Google then Yahoo's the bad guy?

pot meet kettle

Re:And this is a bad thing?

[RightSaidFred99]

It never existed, and neither did the Unicorns you probably think existed when you grew up. There is no perfectsystem, and capitalism is horrible - the only thing worse is every other system.

Re:The devil in the details

[commodore64_love]

LISTEN UP JACKASS. I've been out of work since mid-2009. Why? Because the fucking jobs are going to fucking foreigners IMPORTED BY COMPANIES only paying them $15-20/hour. That's why. REVOKE Their Damn Visas, so priority is given to American engineers.

Either that or enjoy watching me suck $550/week of unemployment out of your paycheck every week!

DUH. I'll be modded down, but I don't care. I'm sick and tired of not being unable to find a job, and yet seeing Indian and Chinese engineers with big grins on their faces and bragging about how "I just arrive in US on 2-year visa!" Damn treasonous fucks in government. Cancel the visas and hire your OWN countrymen.