IT Staffing Report: May 8, 2014

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Apple, Google and others settle employee anti-poaching suit

Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. reached a settlement last month in a class action lawsuit that claimed the tech giants suppressed workers' wages by agreeing not to actively recruit each other’s employees, in violation of federal antitrust laws.

The terms of the settlement are confidential until plaintiffs file their settlement papers with the court. The lawsuit included a class of approximately 64,600 technical, creative and research employees. However, Bloomberg reports the settlement is for $324 million, based on information from a confidential source.

The case began In May 2011 when a former software engineer at Lucasfilm filed a class action lawsuit charging Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar with violations of antitrust laws by conspiring to fix and restrict the pay of their employees and entering into “no solicitation” agreements with each other. Similar complaints were later filed by other employees.

This settlement follows settlements reached last year with Lucasfilm Ltd., Pixar, and Intuit Inc. for a combined $20 million.