Dive Brief:
- Adobe, Apple, Google and Intel are now on the hook for $415 million to put to rest a so-called "antipoaching" civil lawsuit that accused the tech behemoths of conspiring to avoid hiring each other's workers, according to various media reports.
- CNET reported that last week U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that the settlement was "fair, adequate, and reasonable" for the thousands of plaintiffs involved in the class action suit.
- The $415 million settlement was proposed by the four tech companies in January after Koh had rejected a previous attempt to settle the case for $324.5 million on the grounds that the employees harmed by the antipoaching policy deserved more money, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
Filed by ex-employees of the companies involved, CNET reports that the lawsuit shed a light on the practice of some major tech industry players of allegedly working together to agree not to poach employees from each other.
The affected employees had argued that such agreements limited their ability to rise up in the industry and stifled their attempts to earn higher salaries. Email exchanges among such top executives as late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs and former Google CEO and now executive chairman of Alphabet Eric Schmidt revealed how requests were made not to hire certain employees away from each other.
In the January motion to settle the case, the companies continued to deny that they had done anything wrong or violated any laws, but Intel said in a statement it wasn't to "avoid the risk, burdens and uncertainty of ongoing litigation." Adobe also sent CNET a statement in which it denied doing anything illegal.
Of course, competition for talent is a rough game in Silicon Valley, so the concept sounds logical on the face of it. But HR executives should be wary to sign on any such plan.
