U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, has granted final approval to a $415 million settlement that ends a high profile lawsuit in which workers accused Apple, Google and two other Silicon Valley companies of conspiring to hold down salaries, reports Reuters (http://tinyurl.com/n9pv3k2).
She had rejected an earlier settlement offer, saying it didn’t offer enough compensation to about 64,000 workers affected by the case. However, in March Koh said she was satisfied after the companies increased their earlier offer of $324.5 million.
The lawsuit involved about 60,000 Silicon Valley workers who claimed that Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe conspired to drive down wages by agreeing not to “poach” each other’s employees. The complaint sought restitution for lost compensation and treble damages for the anti-competitive employment practices of the aforementioned companies.