Attorneys for Google, Apple, Adobe Systems and Intel have appealed a judge’s decision to throw out a proposed settlement in Silicon Valley’s employee hiring case.

Attorneys for the companies filed a petition Thursday evening with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, appealing Judge Lucy Koh’s recent decision to throw out a proposed US$324.5 million settlement. Plaintiffs in the class-action case, Silicon Valley technology workers, accuse executives at the companies of conspiring not to hire each other’s workers between 2005 and 2009, which they say suppressed their wages and restricted their mobility.

Federal district court Judge Koh rejected the settlement in early August, on the grounds that it was too low given the strength of the evidence — specifically emails between executives — that would support a trial. That decision was a “clear error as a matter of law,” attorneys wrote in the Thursday filing.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…