Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 180 posts

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#31

Post by rpedela »

smtddr wrote: post #19
justina1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope the perception leans more towards 'uber rich tech execs conspired to pay their employees less' and not 'some of the best paid employees complain about how little they make'.

I deleted the comment you've replied to because of the rapid downvotes... but screw it... I'm putting it back here. Who needs karma anyway... To the rest of the public, we probably look like complaining oil or Walmart execs. While the rest of the general public is dealing with insane commutes and thankless/soul-crushing jobs, we got things like "The Social Network" movie, San Francisco gentrification issues, fancy ca…

I completely agree except for your implication that the behavior of Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, etc was just some sort of trivial Silicon Valley nonsense. They actually committed a serious crime if it is true which it seems to be based on the released emails I have seen. The companies involved having to pay some money as punishment is just a slap on the wrist.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#32

Post by nostrademons »

yonran wrote: post #23
gopher1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 64,000 plaintiffs. Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/08/judge-rejects-comically-low...

By the way, Judge Lucy Koh estimated that fees would be $82885000, so each of the 64466 class members would have received $3750, not quite the “essentially zero” that Alex at TechCrunch claims in the article you link. Source: Judge Koh’s order http://www.scribd.com/doc/236255928/Apple-Google-Intel-Adobe...

$3750 is about a week's pay for a tech worker, so essentially zero.

Salaries jumped by about $30K/year when the pact collapsed, so the commenters above who are calling for the decimal point to shift a place to the right aren't all that unreasonable.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#33

Post by x1798DE »

pkaye wrote: post #22
gopher1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 64,000 plaintiffs. Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/08/judge-rejects-comically-low...

Good thing it is no 65536 plaintiffs or the 16-bit counter will overflow!

Until someone uses a signed int16 in the payment calculation and all of a sudden everyone owes nearly twice as much as they were going to get.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#35

Post by 8154730 »

peterb wrote: post #15
troydavis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an employer, I'd like to see it move right by two places. I'm not optimistic though.

Agreed. Even 3 decimal places wouldn't do justice to what they have done to us. Fuck those greedy bastards. If we were smart we would unionize ... err, sorry, I mean form a professional association to represent our interests. Like doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.

So you think $324 billion dollars is appropriate? Wouldn't that essentially bankrupt all the companies involved? Who needs to worry about jobs when some of the biggest tech firms on the planet are wiped out! Not to mention that $324 billion spread across 64000 plaintiffs is $5 million each... You wouldn't be looking for that easy windfall, now would you?

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#36

Post by tdicola »

yonran wrote: post #23
gopher1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 64,000 plaintiffs. Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/08/judge-rejects-comically-low...

By the way, Judge Lucy Koh estimated that fees would be $82885000, so each of the 64466 class members would have received $3750, not quite the “essentially zero” that Alex at TechCrunch claims in the article you link. Source: Judge Koh’s order http://www.scribd.com/doc/236255928/Apple-Google-Intel-Adobe...

I bet $3750 can barely cover one month of mortgage on a place in San Francisco. It's no small amount, but in the context of their location and cost of living it's a pittance.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#37

Post by dasil003 »

nostrademons wrote: post #32
yonran wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the way, Judge Lucy Koh estimated that fees would be $82885000, so each of the 64466 class members would have received $3750, not quite the “essentially zero” that Alex at TechCrunch claims in the article you link. Source: Judge Koh’s order http://www.scribd.com/doc/236255928/Apple-Google-Intel-Adobe...

$3750 is about a week's pay for a tech worker, so essentially zero. Salaries jumped by about $30K/year when the pact collapsed, so the commenters above who are calling for the decimal point to shift a place to the right aren't all that unreasonable.

Assuming that is the true effect, it should probably 2-3x that in punitive damages otherwise the collusion was still a good idea, and next time it will be more adequately paranoid corporate types covering their asses instead of the self-assured Jobs forwarding evidence around with smileys.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#38

Post by cwal37 »

smtddr wrote: post #19
justina1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope the perception leans more towards 'uber rich tech execs conspired to pay their employees less' and not 'some of the best paid employees complain about how little they make'.

I deleted the comment you've replied to because of the rapid downvotes... but screw it... I'm putting it back here. Who needs karma anyway... To the rest of the public, we probably look like complaining oil or Walmart execs. While the rest of the general public is dealing with insane commutes and thankless/soul-crushing jobs, we got things like "The Social Network" movie, San Francisco gentrification issues, fancy ca…

Why are you drinking expensive water from halfway around the world? As someone who subsists on lowly tap water, I had to google it, and my mind is absolutely boggled. Not exactly doing yourself any favors with that whole perception issue. A glass bottle too! Despite the ease with which you might think glass would be recycled, its place in the waste stream actually makes it much more difficult (sorting difficulty and disparity between glass). Many places that have plastic and paper recycling won't take glass.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voss_%28water%29

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#39

Post by [deleted] »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #16
troydavis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an employer, I'd like to see it move right by two places. I'm not optimistic though.

It would be interesting to see an analysis of what the economic impact of these depressed wages has been. $3 Billion is probably not too far off the mark. Probably not $3 Billion directly to the programmers impacted, but definitely to the broader economy.

[deleted]

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#40

Post by throwaway5752 »

smtddr wrote: post #19
justina1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope the perception leans more towards 'uber rich tech execs conspired to pay their employees less' and not 'some of the best paid employees complain about how little they make'.

I deleted the comment you've replied to because of the rapid downvotes... but screw it... I'm putting it back here. Who needs karma anyway... To the rest of the public, we probably look like complaining oil or Walmart execs. While the rest of the general public is dealing with insane commutes and thankless/soul-crushing jobs, we got things like "The Social Network" movie, San Francisco gentrification issues, fancy ca…

I am not in SV, and completely agree with you. The optics are terrible. And beyond that... the reality is pretty bad. I don't think there's a way to spin it, a lot of the citizens of the US have had a very bad run for a very long time and would be very envious of the terms of most HN members' jobs.

I think baseball players are a fairer analogy. People love to hate on baseball player salaries, but it's not their fault that the market value of their skills is what it is. They are obligated to fight collusion and have a union anyway, though.

It doesn't help that this is non-recruitment/poaching vs blacklist. That seems greedier that people are complaining about lack of inbound recruitment vs more heavy-handed/less abstract techniques.

I think it has to be fought, because of the precedent, like companies defending copyrights.

Post reply on HN