A lawsuit filed with a San Jose, California suit claimed that companies Adobe, Apple, Google and Intel have conspired to hire its engineers from the other's employee base and knowingly shared salary data to set pay ceilings. According to a report by the EE Times, the lawsuit had based its allegations from an investigation concluded by the US Justice Department in 2012, which also said that such practices were also evident at Intuit, Lucasfilms, and Pixar.
The New York Times had said on Saturday that based from the details obtained from the Justice Department probe, up to 64,000 engineers and programmers were involved and that the suit could claim billions in dollars in terms of damages. The Times also said that the brains behind the hiring scheme was no other than the tech community's beloved pioneer, the late Steve Jobs.
In an email, San Francisco lawyer Joseph Savari told EE Times in an email, "It is hard for me to believe that this was the only time this happened. The companies say they have these practices in place but they are justified for other reasons." Savari represents the plaintiffs in the class-action suit, the Times said.
Despite the fact that the 2012 probe had the Justice Department and the companies named in the investigation agree on the settlement, with the latter promising to end the unscrupulous practices, it has been said that the deal would still allow engineers covered in the probe to seek for damages. Moreover, engineers and programmers who have worked for Google and others could join the suit online until March 19th. This spring, EE Times said that the class-action suit will be heard by by Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
EE Times said that the latest lawsuit shed the light on the market for talented engineers and programmers for Silicon Valley companies. It has been said that South Korean giant Samsung and Chinese Baidu had been looking for the best engineers for their expansion plans in the US.
