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Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

reuters.com

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

#51

Post by [deleted] »

revelation wrote: post #42
8154730 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You go directly from "tech firms wiped out apocalypse" to "64000 plaintiffs [..] $5 million each" and don't notice the disconnect? Frankly, that needs to happen, and not only when theres cause. We need a Netflix chaos monkey that breaks up big companies and redistributes their wealth to let creative destruction create something better.

[deleted]

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

#52

Post by johnnydogma »

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.

Why has no one mentioned jail time for breaking the law and potentially damaging people's lives and livelihood? Why do we always think money is the solution. Jobs is burning in Hell, so no hope there, but anyone else this can be attributed to should do time, not pay their body servants salary and laugh at how the poor struggle to eat.

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

#53

Post by fleitz »

justina1 wrote: post #4

I'm curious if this will have any impact on the practice other than companies getting better at not leaving a paper trail. If it doesn't, the only people this settlement will help is those at the named companies and not the trickle down effect it's had on the rest of the industry.

That's the nature of all crime.

Unless you're an idiot you either stop doing it, or get better at it. That's why when you commit a crime they send you to criminal school, so you can swap notes about all the other ways guys got caught.

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

#54

Post by colechristensen »

Eduardo3rd wrote: post #11
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 think that's pretty unlikely. The tech industry has done a poor job of endearing itself to the rest of the economy over the past few years. My non-tech friends have been through the struggle of finding jobs in general throughout the recession. Few of them are going to shed a tear for engineers making less than fair market wages who already pull down six figures in their early twenties. Someone I know in SF posted a…

Reality isn't real only if you're poor (and many of the poor in America live like kings compared to the poor in other parts of the world or in the recent past). There are a large number of fuzzy groups of people in the world whom have little concept of how it is to live in any group significantly distant from their own.

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

#55

Post by fleitz »

Eduardo3rd wrote: post #11
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 think that's pretty unlikely. The tech industry has done a poor job of endearing itself to the rest of the economy over the past few years. My non-tech friends have been through the struggle of finding jobs in general throughout the recession. Few of them are going to shed a tear for engineers making less than fair market wages who already pull down six figures in their early twenties. Someone I know in SF posted a…

Yep, it's poverty morality, as soon as you make 50 cents an hour more than the next guy you're rich, and have no right to complain about anything.

Even when I was making $15 an hour answering phones, I'd hear no end about how the bus drivers on strike shouldn't get paid $20 an hour. Yet no one wanted to quit their job and become a bus driver.

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

#56

Post by maxxxxx »

johnnydogma wrote: post #52
peterb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why has no one mentioned jail time for breaking the law and potentially damaging people's lives and livelihood? Why do we always think money is the solution. Jobs is burning in Hell, so no hope there, but anyone else this can be attributed to should do time, not pay their body servants salary and laugh at how the poor struggle to eat.

I think after 2008 it's pretty clear that executives personally don't have to fear any consequences from wrongdoing. Either someone way down the chain of command goes to jail or the shareholders pay for a settlement.

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

#57

Post by spoondan »

numlocked wrote: post #25

It's strange that even the NYT got this wrong -- the bulk of the agreement was not in fact about poaching engineers, but rather sales and product people[0]. [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/emails-eric-schmidt-sergey-br...

the bulk of the agreement was not in fact about poaching engineers, but rather sales and product people

Do you have a better citation for this claim? The linked Business Insider article does not claim such a thing, and the court filings the article cites do not support the claim.

The article cites Google's Special Agreement Hiring Policy that divides companies into three categories: Restricted Hiring, Do Not Call, and Sensitive. Only the protocol with respect to Restricted Hiring companies is constrained to Sales, Product, and G&A. Google's protocol for the Do Not Call companies seems to prohibit actively recruiting any employee at those companies. The article does not address whether other companies limited the scope of collusion to, "sales and product people."

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

#58

Post by jahewson »

davidf18 wrote: post #27

This collusion depressed the price of engineering talent but so does H1B Visas. Need to work on the current battle as well...

National collusion against talented individuals born by chance within the boundaries of another administrative area seems more like an entrenched privilege than a worthy "battle", especially given how much of US companies' revenue comes from outside the US.

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

#59

Post by fleitz »

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…

This isn't a PR case, it's a court case, fuck what anyone who is not the judge thinks, lawyer up and go get some money.

Do you think the execs at Google/Apple care what Joe the plumber thinks about how much money they make. No, they're going to court to beat the settlement down.

You can be broke and have the adoration of the poor, or you can be rich and hated by the poor.

(There is a 3rd option which is chuck a few thousand at a democratic politician, and write an op ed piece in the NYT every few years about how the rich should pay more taxes, and enjoy not paying taxes.)

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

#60

Post by 8154730 »

revelation wrote: post #42
8154730 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You go directly from "tech firms wiped out apocalypse" to "64000 plaintiffs [..] $5 million each" and don't notice the disconnect? Frankly, that needs to happen, and not only when theres cause. We need a Netflix chaos monkey that breaks up big companies and redistributes their wealth to let creative destruction create something better.

My post is more about the hypocrisy OS peterb stating "fuck those greedy bastards" while also implying that every plaintiff should get $5 million.
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