SAN DIEGO (August 26, 2020): Hartley LLP attorneys, with lead class counsel Lieff Cabraser and Fine Kaplan and Black, obtained final approval of a $48,950,000 settlement in a class action regarding the use of “no-poach” agreements by the country’s largest railway equipment suppliers in an effort to reduce competition and suppress employee compensation.
Each class member is expected to recover $7,100 on average, apparently the second largest no-poach antitrust recovery in the United States. Hartley represented the class comprised of employees and former employees of some of the country’s top railway equipment companies, Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation and Knorr Bremse AG and their subsidiaries.
Beginning in 2009, the companies entered into express agreements not to compete for employees by refraining from soliciting or hiring each other’s employees without the consent of the current employer. The “no-poach” agreements allowed the companies to reduce competition for each company’s employees and suppressed employee compensation below competitive levels. In addition, the companies’ actions denied employees access to better job opportunities, restricted their mobility and denied them the ability to negotiate better terms of employment.
“The employees working for each of the railway companies were clearly disadvantaged by their employers, whose actions reduced their compensation potential and limited their career opportunities,” said Jason Hartley. “I am proud that each class member will recover some of the money they are rightfully owed.”
Hartley, along with co-counsel collectively spent over 12,000 hours working on the case on behalf of the railway employee class members. The settlement was approved today by the Honorable Joy Flowers Conti, Senior District Court Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
About Hartley LLP
Hartley LLP represents commercial plaintiffs on a contingency basis and victims of anticompetitive conduct like price fixing agreements, unfair competition, tying agreements and monopolization. Its attorneys have worked to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for its clients. For more information about our practice, visit https://hartleyllp.com/results/.