Grabar Law Office has filed a putative class action complaint on behalf of all natural persons employed by Defendants, Knorr-Bremse AG; Knorr Brake Company; New Yord Air Brake Company; Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation; Faiveley Transport North America Inc.; and Railroad Controls L.P, or their wholly owned subsidiaries at any time from 2009 to the present.
This putative class action challenges unlawful agreements between two of the world’s largest rail equipment suppliers to restrain competition in the labor markets in which they compete for employees. Without the knowledge and consent of their employees, Defendants collectively agreed not to solicit each other’s employees, recruit each other’s employees, hire each other’s employees without prior approval, or otherwise compete for employees (collectively, “no-poach agreements”).
The no-poach agreements spanned several years and were monitored and enforced by high-level company executives, and had the effect of unlawfully allocating employees between the companies, resulting in harm to U.S. workers.
By implementing these unlawful agreements, Knorr and Wabtec (including Faiveley) substantially reduced competition for employees to the detriment of rail-equipment industry workers in this important U.S. industry. These no-poach agreements denied American rail-equipment industry workers access to better job opportunities, restricted their mobility, and deprived them of competitively significant information that they could have used to negotiate for better terms of employment, including higher pay. Moreover, these no-poach agreements disrupted the efficient allocation of labor that comes from Knorr, Wabtec, and Faiveley vigorously competing for rail-equipment industry employees.
Knorr and Wabtec have agreed to settle these claims with the Department of Justice.
The case is Carruth v. Knorr-Bremse AG, et. al, 2:18-cv-00469-CRE (W.D.PA.).
View the Complaint here: Filed Complaint
View news article here: Employees Sue Knorr, Wabtec After DOJ No-Poach Settlement – Law360
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