INDUSTRY GIANTS Apple, Google and Intel face an antitrust lawsuit after a judge ruled that they illegally conspired not to hire each other's employees.
clicky


looks a pretty open and shut case there if those reported emails exists.

I've seen (hell I've been subject to) 'gardening leave' clauses in contracts before now. However I would find this reprehensible if the employees didn't know about it. One thing that, to me, would important would be whether it was a 'no hire' policy on people who had left one of the three, or if it was a 'no poaching' between them. The former is, IMO, more damaging.

Jon

I know this is in America, but are clauses like that even legal in the UK?

It doesn't appear to be legal in the US, but we don't have the same 'anti-collusion' frameworks they do. Our competition laws are actually weaker than theirs, so...

Jon

Our laws are weaker but there is the european employment legislation that outlaws retraint of trade except in a very few select cases.

IIRC 'restraint of trade' applies when a company's actions stops somebody being able to work at all but it doesn't apply when it's merely stopping you being employed at a particular company, assuming that company isn't a monopoly. For example, the Bosman ruling in football went through because the then regulations stopped a player playing for any other club than his current employers, not because it stopped them playing for A.N.Other FC in particular. Restraint of trade guarantees you a right to a job, but not a particular job. In that sense, 'gardening leave' is more of a restraint of trade than this case.

I'd imagine there are certain jobs in ApGoSoft which don't really exist anywhere else when it might apply but if you're, I dunno, an application interface designer there are plenty of other places you could work.

IMO, they've gone the right way by pursuing this under anti-collusion regulations because it sounds like a much stronger case.

Jon

Gardening leave is normally part of your employment contract - e.g. I will give 3 months notice that I want to quit. If you are in a sensitive part of an organisation / industry they will when you say you are leaving march you out of the door and you will be on leave for the 3 month (but being paid)

There is nothing wrong with this