By Jeff Elder
Lawyers for 64,000 current and former workers have reached a new
settlement with four Silicon Valley companies they accuse of
conspiring not to hire each other's employees, suppressing wages
from 2005 to 2009, according to representatives of both sides and a
document filed Tuesday.
Details of the proposed settlement with Apple Inc., Google Inc.,
Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc., couldn't be learned. The
proposal is expected to be filed in U.S. District Court in San
Jose, Calif., on Thursday, one lawyer said.
Tuesday, a lawyer for the companies filed a document with the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, saying the two
sides had "reached a new settlement agreement." The companies had
appealed Judge Koh's decision to throw out the earlier
settlement.
Without a new settlement, a trial in the case is scheduled to
start on April 10.
In August, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected an earlier
proposed settlement of $324.5 million as insufficient. Judge Koh
said workers at three other companies that had previously settled
in the same case received more money. To reach the same rate, the
judge said, the settlement "would need to total at least $380
million."
Judge Koh ruled after one of the named plaintiffs, former Adobe
engineer Michael Devine, opposed the settlement, saying it would
bring the plaintiffs' attorneys $8 million in legal fees, while the
affected workers would average about $5,000 apiece.
Mr. Devine's lawyer, Daniel Girard, said Tuesday that his client
supports the new proposed settlement.
Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel, confirmed that a new deal
had been reached.
Representatives for Apple and Google declined to comment. An
Adobe representative couldn't be reached.
The suit followed a 2011 Justice Department case, and claims the
companies conspired to not recruit each other's tech talent,
hurting the workers' job market and depressing wages.
The companies said the pay for workers during this period rose
and any cooperation between companies didn't hurt employees'
pay.
During pretrial proceedings in the class-action antitrust case,
emails from top executives including the late Steve Jobs, Google
co-founder Sergey Brin and then-CEO Eric Schmidt surfaced, showing
the executives conferred on hiring plans, sometimes through
intermediaries.
News of the new settlement was earlier reported by Reuters.
Write to Jeff Elder at jeff.elder@wsj.com
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