Civil Suit Against Google, Apple and Others Over Employee-Poaching Ban Can Continue

[hchung]

No, it was an agreement to NOT HIRE any employee

Look at The Verge post

It depends on who you're referring to. The Verge post did mention Pixar not hiring a guy, but that's unique and not the general agreement amongst the companies. (I'd venture a guess the guy in that HR dept just screwed up.)

All the other notes in the post refer to sacking the guy in HR who cold-called. (Personally, I'd think sacking the HR guy was kinda going overboard.)

sessamoid and Mal are correct in that the agreement was to not poach or cold-call. And that should an employee choose to apply themselves to a competitor, they're free to do so. (I've talked with people in Google's HR dept about it as well. My opinion was that I thought the whole thing made sense and wasn't unfair to the employees.)

In fact, the Verge specifically titles the post referring to it as a "no poach scandal". Not a "no hire scandal."

 

[mijail]

One day there will be an online video be going viral that shows a slave doing slave labor on a cotton plantation, and then seamlessly transit into a ant style almost-slave laborer putting together iPhones and barely making enough to live, not having an apartment, and sleeping in dormitories.

And finally cut to a single-teared indian. With a "do it for the children!" legend. Maybe with some baby seal thrown in for good measure.

'cause we are going for the emotional effect, not for the difficult nuances, aren't we?

 

[zoetmb]

Not at all true. You can always reject specific parts of a contract. I have done that many times.

If you're a high enough level or if you're a freelance consultant, maybe. But unless you're someone really special who a company desperately wants, you have no negotiating power. Most companies simply say, "that's the policy of our company and a standard provision of our contracts and if you want to work here, you have to sign it." It doesn't matter what it's actually about - they don't want to get a lawyer involved to renegotiate it.

And I have walked away from one potential employer who wanted me to sign a non-compete which would have been in effect for one year after I left the company, even after the contract term was over. Most states now prevent that type of limitation, especially right-to-work states. For another freelance consulting deal, they wanted me to sign a similar non-compete. I told them that was ridiculous - this was the industry I made my living in and I worked for companies before them and I would be working for companies in the same field after them. They agreed to remove the offending clause.

And: When Jobs left Apple, didn't he piss Apple off by claiming he wasn't going to take any employees and then actually taking a bunch?