Microsoft, Ask.com, Oracle Latest To Be Sued Over No-Poach Deal 47
itwbennett (1594911) writes Oracle, Microsoft and Ask.com are facing suits alleging that they conspired to restrict hiring of staff. The suits appear to refer to a memo that names a large number of companies that allegedly had special arrangements with Google to prevent poaching of staff and was filed as an exhibit on May 17, 2013 in another class action suit over hiring practices. The former employees filing lawsuits against Microsoft, Ask.com and Oracle have asked that the cases be assigned to Judge Koh as there were similarities with the case against Google, Apple and others — and it maybe doesn't hurt that Judge Koh thought the $324.5 million settlement in that case was too low.
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I don't even know what you mean. Reality doesn't have morals, and the feds, at least to the extent they're involved, haven't been at all friendly to the notion of employers doing this.
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What do you mean? Microsoft is saying "the feds investigated us and gave us a pass, so you shouldn't let the employee's sue us for doing this"
wait a second... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:wait a second... (Score:4, Funny)
I don't know about the company, but their damned tool-bar still does.
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Ask.com still exists?
I'm sure there is a web site where you can Ask questions like that.
Re:wait a second... (Score:5, Funny)
Their "toolbar" hides in Oracle's installer for Java. The parasite... nay, symbiote, uses this installer as a vector to infect unsuspecting computers, the end result being the madness of innocent system administrators and dragooned relatives helping Grandma figure out why her system is so slow because she hasn't sprung for new hardware since the mid-Nineteen-Fucking-Nineties and it's a GODDAMN Windows Machine And... MOTHER OF GOD! I don't believe this! It's XP and it Has Every Piece of Malware Since the DAWN OF TIME INSTALLED ON IT AND I HAVE TO CLEAN IT ALL OFF BECAUSE SHE COULDN'T LOSE THE MOTHERFUCKING CAT VIDEO HER &^!!%(*!&$!&^*$#! FRIEND CHARLENE SENT HER AND THE SENILE OLD BIDDY CAN'T REMEMBER... uh, where she put it... ahem, um sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah...
I've seen it far too many times for it to be a phantom. A zombie, perhaps, shambling along on toolbar installations by those too green or momentarily distracted or forgetful... So, even if it is dead, it lives! IT LIVES!
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My favorite is the "ask.com updater" which on many machine can't be removed via "Programs and Features" (Add/Remove Programs for those XP users) even as an admin.
Thankfully still killable by Malware Bytes, etc.
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i like the fact that the first search result under the paid placement is "Why does crapware still exist? Follow the Silicon Valley money trail ..."
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You obviously haven't had to update Java in quite some time.
Every single time you update it, it pre-selects the choice to install the ask.com toolbar and make it your default search. You have to explicitly deselect it.
If you don't know to look for it, you end up with it ... I've had to remove it from the computers of several friends.
Because, apparently Oracle are still greedy assholes, and use Java as a vector to piggy back the ask.com crap -- which means either Oracle is part owner, or being paid to insta
It's not the employees' fault. (Score:3)
When they signed their contract they missed that checkbox that said "change my employment preference to lock to this company". There was so much legalese to scroll through.
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The thing is, without some sort of revolution, I just can't see the U.S. ever taking all of Smith's advice. For example, can you imagine a United States where a corporate charter requires a review and approval process where you must show necessity?
As for Friedman, he has some really good ideas, but I can't imagine a GOP that wouldn't filibuster a basic income bill to death even if they had to send the country down in flames to do it.
Management only (Score:4, Insightful)
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The memo only talks about executives and product managers. Engineers (at ANY level) are explicitly excluded from the agreement (that is, they can be recruited at will), as well as any product "contributors".
So you think the existence of this agreement makes the existence of other, similar agreements, less likely? If you caught a burglar and he confessed to steeling your TV, would you assume he left the rest of your stuff alone?
But lets assume it does... you think that a no-poach agreement on executives and product managers would have no affect on the salary of Engineers? You don't think a lower salary for executives doesn't have an effect on the rest of the organization as a whole?
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The second page specifies "Sensitive Companies", which is a different agreement and does indeed cover a lot more than just executives and managers.
Actually, it covers LESS. It's just a "notification of recruitment" provision.
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Class warfare (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why I'm opposed to all those "learn to code" programs Zuck and friends keep hyping. The people at the top of the tech industry are not content with their billions. They want your thousands, too. There is a concerted effort under way to push your wages down, take that money and throw it onto their own already huge piles. No poaching deals. H1B visas. "STEM shortage," "coder shortage" bullshit. It's all part of the same offensive. It is class warfare and their class is winning.
What else? (Score:1)
Entrpreneurialism is the platitudinous answer to all the unhappiness of capitalism. Just start a company yourself... pull yourself up by your boot straps. Look at Jeff Bezos. 21 years of hot air and no earnings, and the 'markets' still reward themselves as share holders. As long as the balls remain aloft, the emperor's clothes are said to be opaque.
The Gods Must Be Insane...
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That would be fine in a free market, but the Masters of Universe rig the game by illegally colluding (as in this case) or buying immigration laws that allow them to import indentured servants (H1Bs). If everybody were playing fair, yeah we could have free market competition settle issues between capital and labor, but capital is rigging the game.
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Assuming such a mythical animal ever existed.
Here's a hint: it doesn't exist, it never has, and it simply can't.
For the reasons you list. The people with the most capital will never allow it to be free ... only as free as benefits them the most.
The free market is an abstraction, like a perfectly spherical cow. But it isn't real.
The settlement was too low. (Score:4, Interesting)
The settlement offer the lawyers wanted to take was WAY too low. After the agreement collapsed Google alone had to give their entire staff a $10k year raise, and they think less than $5k per person for multiple years is sufficient? Everyone should be getting $10k per year minimum. Lawyer fees should be capped and be above and beyond payment to the class holders. Only if these companies have to give every employee affected by this $50 or $100K in damages will this set a precedent that will prevent future abuses.
And everyone in one of these professions was hurt (Score:4, Informative)
Scale (Score:1)
Kind of funny when you think of it (Score:1)
Because all they're talking about is maybe 500 senior executives. None of those companies are hiring below the executive level in the United States.