Are a bunch of tech companies working together to fix employee pay? That's what a new class action lawsuit claims. CNet reports that the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the California Superior Court in Alameda County, claims that Apple, Intel, Google, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe and Intuit have violated anti-trust laws to fix employee pay along with working together to set up "no solicitation" deals.
The lawsuit's plaintiff is Siddharth Hariharan, a former employee at Lucasfilm. Hariharan claims that the above listed companies have cut deals to not actively recruit team members from each other. He also claims that the companies made deals to "provide notification when making an offer to another's employee (without the knowledge or consent of that employee)". Finally, the lawsuit claims that the companies named as defendants created "agreements to cap pay packages offered to prospective employees at the initial offer."
In a statement, Hariharan is quoted as saying;
It's disappointing that, while we were working hard to make terrific products that resulted in enormous profits for Lucasfilm, senior executives of the company cut deals with other premiere high tech companies to eliminate competition and cap pay for skilled employees."
The lawsuit is seeking damages including lost compensation for employees at the involved company between January 1, 2005 and January 1, 2010. The US Department of Justice started an anti-trust investigation of the companies in 2009 but that was settled in 2010 with the companies all agreeing not to enter into any "no-cold-call agreements" for their employees. So far none of the companies have commented on this newest lawsuit.
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