Bell to Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe – They had secretly agreed not to compete with and not hire each other's employees, so as not to cause their salaries to increase
Four of the world's largest technology companies have agreed to pay a total of $415 million to their former employees, following prosecution and lawsuits for concerted practices and secret agreements to prevent one from claiming and hiring the other's employees.
Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe were at risk of paying damages of 9 billion dollars. In the end, they chose to settle, essentially accepting the charges. The case also involved Intuit (a business software company), Pixar (in which Steve Jobs had invested after he was fired from Apple in 1986) and Lucasfilm, but they followed the path of compromise much earlier, paying only – compared to the final amount – 20 million dollars.
The litigation began in 2010, when the US Department of Justice decided to prosecute the companies. In 2013, five former employees (one has since died) filed the first lawsuit. To date, a total of 64,000 Silicon Valley workers have appeared as civil plaintiffs.
The US Department of Justice had found that senior executives at the companies involved had agreed to and maintained lists of employees who they did not claim from each other in order not to cause their salaries to increase. This process appears to have been known to other executives, from the human resources management (HR) areas and in particular the departments that calculate additional remuneration and benefits (Comp & Ben).
Bilateral agreements were reportedly made between Apple and Google, Apple and Adobe, Apple and Pixar, Google and Intel, Google and Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar.
Last year, the four companies and representatives of thousands of workers came very close to a final settlement worth $325 million. But a final push by one of the plaintiffs convinced a judge to reject the agreement. In a letter, the worker compared it to someone who is caught stealing a $400 iPad and is then fined $40 for damage but allowed to keep the iPad, with no record of the act.
Eventually, the trial resumed, leading to the current settlement, through which it is estimated that the workers secured another $90 million, bringing the total to $435 million.
Source: protothema.gr
