Apple, A123 To Settle Lawsuit Over Poached Battery Engineers

itwbennett writes: Slashdot readers will remember that back in February, electric car battery maker A123 Systems sued Apple for allegedly "raiding" the Waltham, Massachusetts, company and hiring five employees, including two top-level engineers. The loss of these workers essentially forced A123 to shut down some of its main projects, the suit alleged. Now, according to court documents filed Monday, A123 and Apple "have reached an agreement, signed a term sheet, and are in the process of drafting a final settlement agreement."

Comments

Both ways?

[JBMcB]

Last year: Hey Apple, you can't collude with other companies to prevent poaching from each other!
This year: Hey Apple, you can't poach other company's employees!

Well which is it? Either you can hire other company's employees or you can't.

Re:It still amazes me that we treat labor as pawns

[Registered Coward v2]

It's obvious that the A123 employees left of their own accord. A123 doesn't hold any exclusive rights to those folks unless their under contract. If these folks were "at will" employees then by all means if a new deal comes along they should go. All of this begs the point that Apple shouldn't be paying a dime to A123 in this case. Employees are not slaves and it's time to get out of the mindset that they are pawns that can be traded or kept at the whim of some task master.

Exactly. It's called employment at will. Revenue down? Layoff staff? Can't pay your bills? Sorry, not my problem. Better job offer? Leave company. Can't complete important projects? Sorry, not my problem. Absent an enforceable non-compete it works both ways.