Colluding Against Programmers

[Commentary] A class action lawsuit brought on behalf of software programmers and other technical professionals against seven large employers in Silicon Valley -- including Apple and Google, Adobe, Intuit, Pixar, Lucasfilm and Intel -- has lifted the curtain on secret, anti-competitive deals that would warm the hearts of robber barons from the Gilded Age.

Lawyers for the programmers say top executives from these companies agreed not to recruit workers from each other, which helped limit increases in salaries and benefits for as many as 64,000 programmers. Their class-action suit, which is being argued in federal court in San Jose (CA), is based on vivid and compelling emails, internal company documents and depositions that undermine the public image of the technology industry, which is widely seen as egalitarian and competitive. The companies do not deny that secret anti-recruiting agreements existed. Indeed, they agreed to do away with such deals in 2010 to settle an antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice, without admitting any wrongdoing. But that settlement did not compensate programmers for income they lost, income the latest suit seeks to capture. Nor did it reveal the full scope of what was going on.