Court upholds tech workers? right to class action

It’s been called an “anti-poaching” case, but now it’s almost certainly a huge class action case. It’s the matter of some 60,000 tech workers suing Apple, Google and other companies for secretly and deliberately suppressing wages in the industry – by agreeing not to hire away workers from each other.

Apple et al. argued that “it wouldn't be fair to hear the case as a class action suit because salaries and other compensation vary from one employee to another and [that] the evidence presented by the plaintiffs is ‘unpersuasive’.” The defendants were joined by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But the court thought otherwise. This week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2013 ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh that gave the green light to the class action.

The companies are accused of “violating the Sherman Act and Clayton Act antitrust laws by conspiring to eliminate competition for labor, depriving workers of job mobility and hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.”

As Reuters pointed out, “Class certification can make it easier for plaintiffs to extract larger awards, at lower cost than if they sued individually. It could also add pressure on defendants to settle.”

At this point, trial is set to begin May 27... unless the U.S. Supreme Court decides to intervene.

Speed Matters strongly supports the right of workers to seek redress, especially by using the antitrust laws, so often turned on workers and their organizations.

Court: Workers can sue Apple, Google, others in wage dispute (CNet, Jan. 15, 2014)

Silicon Valley workers may pursue collusion case as group- court (Reuters, Jan. 14, 2014)

Judge OKs class action wage suit against Apple, others (CNET, Oct. 25, 2014)