A measurement ideated to protect the growth and interests of employers, no-poach agreements can be described as an agreement between two (or more) employers to not take employees away from each other via hiring them across businesses. Although this supposedly makes the workforce of a particular employer more stable, it also creates an unbalanced environment in which it is harder for employees to grow in their careers.
After years of “talking the talk” and prolonged actions, workers across the country saw the first signs of prosecution for no-poach agreements in the form of guidance warnings issued both by The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These warnings informed corporations and HR professionals about the application of federal antitrust laws to hiring practices and non-poach agreements, explicitly putting on record for the first time that said agreements were to be pursued under the risk of persecution for employers participating in them.
Following measures, including statements in which the DOJ reaffirmed its intention to prosecute no-poach agreements criminally and at the end of 2020, would culminate in the first criminal prosecution of Surgical Care Affiliates LLC (SCA), a unit of UnitedHealth Group, on charges of partaking in no-poaching agreements. After a recent indictment in Texas by a federal grand jury, the company was charged for establishing agreements with two other healthcare companies not to poach each other’s senior-level employees.
After years of making its position clear through different gestures, this prosecution allowed the DOJ to fully affirm that no-poach agreements are considered to be illegal and that agreements that unfairly impact the labor market or the compensation of employees may expose a business to criminal charges.
Though employment and wage lawyers exist to fight for the integrity and the rights of workers, the system must keep itself updated to prevent the existence of potentially exploitative agreement loopholes. Taking measures against agreements that actively diminish the potential for employee growth is an essential step in the right direction. It gives workers the possibility of aspiring to better working conditions that reflect the time and effort they have put into what they do.