Tech Giants including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) have agreed to pay $324.5 million in wage deal lawsuit. The case, which was filed on behalf of over 64,000 employees, had sought $3 billion in damages. It involved over a dozen companies and more than one million employees. However, the companies which drew the main attention were Apple, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), Pixar Animation Studios Inc. and Lucasfilm.
In an interview with Fox Business, TechnoBuffalo’s Executive Director of Mobile, Todd Hazelton, said that the case handled a “big problem going on in Silicon Valley.” With the biggest players in the industry trying to poach each others’ employees and settling salary caps, employees become really vulnerable to fraud and dissatisfaction. He said that the companies including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) have been sharing the salary information across the firms so as to hinder employees from leaving their respective companies. Previous findings have also revealed that even top level executives were at least aware, and mostly actively involved, in the alleged case of wage leveraging.
Hazelton mentioned that other companies involved included Intuit and Pixar “were agreeing earlier and have already settled $25 million.” While Pixar has already agreed to settle with the company’s affected employees for as much as $9 million, Intuit had made a settlement of $11 million. With this, the duo had compensated for 8% of the affected plaintiffs.
After the latest hearing, Adobe, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Intel have allegedly agreed to not steal each other’s employees or to leverage their salaries. Pointing to the risks involved with the process, Hazelton said, “I think it’s a risk for everybody, even in the HR Department.” Recruiting key talent, especially key engineering talent has been an intense competition among all tech firms especially lately. But to keep talent in the bag, there are other lawful means. They should be rewarded and promoted within the firm- a logical way to keep them from approaching other firms. “Employees deserve to get paid a lot” because every time the CEO comes up on the stage and says, ‘this is what I created’, it is actually these people behind the scene in huge groups, said Hazelton.
