Various law firms filed a class action lawsuit last week against Westminster-based brake company Knorr-Bremse AG and its local Pennsylvania rival Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. on behalf of employees affected by their "no poach" agreements.
The firms are suing for damages to compensate employees for the amounts that they claim they were denied due to these agreements.
"This case seeks justice for employees who were systematically cheated out of fair compensation by the Defendants' blatantly illegal conspiracy to limit employee mobility and keep wages well below what a free market would have produced," said Bill Sinclair, an attorney with Baltimore-based law firm Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin and White.
Sinclair advises any current or former employee interested in joining the suit to contact him at 410-385-2225 or 800-385-2243 and visit his firm's website, www.mdattorney.com, for more information.
The suit comes in the wake of a Department of Justice civil anti-trust lawsuit in early April.
In an investigation, DOJ's Antitrust Division found the companies, two of the world's largest rail equipment suppliers, have had agreements not to compete for employees since at least 2009.
It then ordered Knorr — a $7.7 billion company that develops, manufactures, and sells rail and commercial vehicle equipment — and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp., a $3.88-billion global rail equipment supplier that provides a wide range of equipment used on passenger and freight trains, to end the agreements as they were found to violate anti-trust laws.
"Knorr and Wabtec compete with each other to attract, hire, and retain various skilled employees, including project managers, engineers, executives, business unit heads, and corporate officers," states the April 3, 2018, DOJ release.
Under antitrust laws, according to the DOJ, these types of agreements "eliminate competition in the same irredeemable way as agreements to fix product prices or allocate customers, which have traditionally been criminally investigated and prosecuted as hardcore cartel conduct."
Immediately after the suit was filed, a voluntary settlement was reached to resolve concerns and restore competition for employees — but in a media statement issued from Knorr, the company says it is not admitting it has ever had no-poach agreements.
"The settlement does not include an admission by Knorr-Bremse that it violated the antitrust or any other law," it states. "Knorr-Bremse has agreed to the settlement to put this matter behind it and to continue its focus on providing state-of-the-art systems, services, and integrated solutions to its customers."
Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the DOJ Antitrust Division, however, stated that this case is part of a broader investigation on naked — those not reasonably necessary for a separate, legitimate business transaction or collaboration — agreements not to compete for employees.
"The unlawful no-poach agreements challenged today restrained competition for employees and deprived rail industry workers of important opportunities, information, and the ability to obtain better terms of employment," Delrahim said in a statement on April 3. "[The] settlement will restore competition for employees in the U.S. rail industry."
Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin and White advises current or former employees of Knorr and Wabtec may have a claim — as well as employees of Knorr Brake Co. LLC, New York Air Brake LLC or Faively Transport North America Inc.
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