Named Plaintiff in Silicon Valley ‘anti-poaching’ suit wants bigger cut of $415M settlement

One of the five named plaintiffs in the anti-poaching class action case against several Silicon Valley tech firms is trying to get a bigger slice of the pie. Former Adobe Systems engineer, Michael Devine, has requested U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh modify terms of the proposed $415 million settlement to give him up to $160,000 for his role in securing a larger payout.

The $160,000 requested by Devine is more than twice the amount the other four named plaintiffs will receive, according to the Wall Street Journal. The rest of the class’s roughly 64,000 employees will receive $5,000 each. Devine claims his larger payout is justified because of his role in opposing the original settlement bid, offered last April, and securing an additional $90.5 million for the class.

“I’m glad that I stood up for the class and that I was able to have such a substantial impact on the outcome,” Devine told the Journal. “I took my responsibilities seriously and I showed that class representatives can make a real difference.”

Devine additionally argues that because of that original opposition, he is at a heightened risk of suffering adverse consequences to his job prospects.

The class action lawsuit alleges that Apple, Google, and other Silicon Valley firms used anti-poaching tactics between 2005 and 2009 to effectively suppress wages by limiting job mobility. In 2013, Intuit, Pixar, and Lucasfilm settled out of court for $20 million.

Judge Koh rejected the remaining defendant’s initial settlement bid of $324.5 million in April, after Devine called the offer “grossly inadequate” in an objection letter to the court. Devine was the sole dissenter to that offer, Apple Insider reports.

If no settlement is agreed upon, the case is scheduled to go to trial on April 10.

 

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