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Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

reuters.com

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Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#101

Post by danielweber »

nfoz wrote: post #86
danielweber wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've definitely caught inappropriate communications behind my back, to the point that I've had to pursue litigation and have collected a couple of (small) tortious interference settlements. This is much much bigger issue to any employer than any union-forming issue. An employee who sues is a giant nightmare. (Which I will say right now can be unfair, because it's hard for an outsider to distinguish between the bogus…

An employee willing to sue when the employer steps out of line, seems like exactly the sort of thing that should be protected. Employers should not be allowed to do wrong things. Employers should especially not be allowed to penalize, nor work together to be aware of or penalize, employees that "tend to sue".

You could make inquiry about lawsuits illegal. I have heard of companies that explicitly ask if you have ever sued a former employer, which crosses a line for me, because it's sometimes necessary to sue to secure your rights.

However, even without deliberately asking, a company could learn, and it's not hard to imagine why an employer would be very wary of hiring someone who has sued a former employer. Being sued is an extremely stressful thing and lots of people go to great, even possibly irrational, lengths to avoid it.

Ask how you would feel working for a company that had sued former employees.

There are no good answers.

Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#102

Post by dman »

Zelphyr wrote: post #97
dman wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that you could start a corporation if you wanted to?

Ok, lets say I do start a corporation. And I do all the right things and in 5-10 years its doing several hundred billion dollars in revenue. Not unheard of - Apple, Google, Facebook. And lets further say that with all that cash I decide I need to get my own representation in government because its just not efficient to donate the max to my representatives in Congress. So I hire a lobbying firm and/or set up a PAC or…

The invisible hand of Adam works by having a multitude of entities looking out for their own selfish interests.

Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#103

Post by sitkack »

001sky wrote: post #14
beedogs wrote: post #5

Settlement seems low. Looks like every company involved ended up saving quite a bit of money, after all is said and done, with this little salary racket they had going.

"They planned to ask for $3 billion in damages at trial, according to court filings. That could have tripled to $9 billion under antitrust law." $0.03-0.10/dollar seems pretty cheap. were the odds really that low in court?

No, but the lawyers for the class action suit probably wanted an easy windfall vs years of work so they pressured to end this early.

Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#104

Post by sitkack »

pjc50 wrote: post #61
michaelochurch wrote: post #41

There's something Apple and Google and their ilk are much more afraid of than this lawsuit and, based on these shenanigans, it may be time. I found out last March why my manager at Google was adverse to me. I knew someone was pulling strings on him and I had thought that he was taking orders related to my criticism of the G+ direction (in fact, the G+ executives were, as far as I know, innocent) but it was actually b…

People thinking that the blacklist is paranoid: the UK had a construction industry blacklisting scandal for years ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21155535 ) and it's still not been properly dealt with. Anti-unionism is often as much about the authority as it is about saving money; the desire to retain arbitrary power over your employees and know you've given them the bad end of the deal, even if they're on a mul…

Same thing with anti-healthcare, the company store wants to make sure you buy inhouse for your health needs. Less likely to walk if your health insurance is disconnected from your employment.

Food and shelter should only be supplied to the worker as condition of employment. Food should only be available through an FSO (food supply organization).

Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#105

Post by abalone »

rayiner wrote: post #76
abalone wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It actually addresses this. The report explains that there's a chance the whole thing would have been invalidated by an appellate judge. Still, personally as a class member I would've pressed for more, and I bet it's because the firm has different incentives. They probably stand to get something on the order of $100M of that settlement. They're thinking, $100M in the hand is worth $1B in the bush. Especially since go…

First, the lawyers don't get to decide whether to settle, the lead plaintiffs do. Second, class members can opt-out of the settlement. As 'danielweber points out, nobody will do so because litigating against employers would be a huge black mark on their resume. That's the real kicker here. As a general principle, I have serious concerns about the agency problems that exist in the class action system as currently stru…

I have a feeling the law firm is in the driver's seat here. I'd assume they organized/selected the lead plaintiffs, so that gives them some selection control.

Opting out individually is in no way, shape or form a substitute for negotiating a larger class action settlement. The whole point of class action is that there's strength in numbers. Even if you didn't care about "black marks", most individuals would not be able to bear the cost and risk of taking these guys to court.

Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#106

Post by Zelphyr »

dman wrote: post #102
Zelphyr wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, lets say I do start a corporation. And I do all the right things and in 5-10 years its doing several hundred billion dollars in revenue. Not unheard of - Apple, Google, Facebook. And lets further say that with all that cash I decide I need to get my own representation in government because its just not efficient to donate the max to my representatives in Congress. So I hire a lobbying firm and/or set up a PAC or…

The invisible hand of Adam works by having a multitude of entities looking out for their own selfish interests.

I'm pretty sure he mean't private entities looking out for their own selfish interests without collusion from the government.

As it is we have an imperial fuck-ton of entities looking out for their own selfish interest, both private and government. Doesn't really seem to me like things are improving for the people that pay the corporations and whom the government purports to serve.

Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#108

Post by [deleted] »

sheepmullet wrote: post #60
hahainternet wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Michael, I have seen you comment here many times. I don't know you, and have never met you, but I feel it's hard to believe your stories. Almost every time you comment, there's immediately a comment from an active Googler telling everyone how you see things in a completely different way. For example, you casually mention here how you must be black listed because you have seen career problems since. Yet this is nothin…

I find it easy to believe him. He posts using his real name. If he is lying then ....well Google has an army of lawyers. He is almost certainly telling what he believes is the truth. In contrast all the active Google employees who follow him around are anon posters. Anon posters who never worked with Michael and are only repeating office gossip or pointing out differences in perspective. Edit: Anon people sign up to…

[deleted]

Re: Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

#109

Post by beedogs »

dman wrote: post #88
Zelphyr wrote: post #85

I'm really getting tired of the slaps on the wrist these giant corporations are getting for their bad behavior. A few years ago Verizon was fined something like $23 million for bilking their customers out of money. That is literally pocket change for a company that size. It didn't punish them one bit. This is just continuing proof that there is no difference between corporations and the government. One writes the law…

You do realize that you could start a corporation if you wanted to?

lol.
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