Apple, Google Agree To Settle Lawsuit Alleging Hiring Conspiracy

An anonymous reader writes "A group of tech companies including Google and Apple have agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit over no-hire agreements in Silicon Valley. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. From the article: 'Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc in 2011, alleging they conspired to refrain from soliciting one another's employees in order to avert a salary war. Trial had been scheduled to begin at the end of May on behalf of roughly 64,000 workers in the class.'"

Comments

Friendly Advice from HR!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Just, um, incidentally, all those checks are uniquely serialized and anyone who cashes one really isn't showing themselves to be a team player or a good fit with company culture, now are they?

Misleading headline

[Virtucon]

It should read: "Google and Apple agree to settle after seeing mountain of evidence against them."

Likewise their statements will read something like: "We have agreed to settle this lawsuit in the hopes that it will bring closure to this situation and while we did nothing wrong we will amend our policies to treat all workers fairly. That is until we get caught again."

Re:Misleading headline

[StillAnonymous]

They pull this hypocritical card all the time. If prices on something are high, they just dismiss with "supply and demand, econ 101, deal with it, blah blah". Then they go and purchase laws that prevent competition, and other laws to prevent you from importing the product from overseas for a cheaper price.

On the other hand, when there's a low supply of skilled of workers (or even if there isn't), rather than raising salaries to attract the talent, they again purchase laws that allow to bring overseas employees into the picture and screw over the local workers once again.

Re:Misleading headline

[maz2331]

My question is: where the HELL is the Labor Department and the Commerce Department on all this? The small company I work at went through a month of poking, prodding, audits, etc. by the Dept. of Labor looking for overtime violations or miscategorizing employees as salary vs. hourly, and all they found was $2000 over 3 years, and even that was questionable.

Re:Settled.

[pepty]

One type of tort reform I would really like to see is parity in rewards between attorneys and the class in class action suits.

1. Parity in time. Lawyers don't get paid til the class gets paid. If it's a medical case and the payout is a trust to pay off medical claims over decades, then the lawyers get paid fractionally as those medical claims are paid. If the lawyers want their money right now they are free to securitize that revenue stream and sell it, probably for 65 cents on the dollar.

2. Parity in kind. If the class receives coupons, services, or goods then the lawyers receive their payment in the same coupons, services or goods. If the lawyers would prefer cash they had better settle for cash; otherwise they can sell their coupons on Ebay for pennies on the dollar.

3. Parity in proportion: The class receives a minimum of 50% of the settlement. Distribution costs don't count toward that 50%.

Re:terms not disclosed

[etphonehome8706]

Per the lawyers for the plaintiffs, the terms of the settlement will become public when the paperwork is filed with the court next month.

On the subject of collusion

[jmd]

If ten people can sit around a table and decide what to pay me, I should be able to have 10 people sit around a table and decide what I will work for.

You know corporations rig the game. Do you still see unions in a bad light now?