Tag: competition

A putative class of aerospace workers recently obtained preliminary approval of large settlements with several government contracting firms in antitrust litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. The nine named plaintiffs are current and former employees of Pratt & Whitney, which is now a division of RTX Corp. (formerly Raytheon Technologies Corporation). Pratt & Whitney manufactures jet engines for commercial and military aircraft. The other five defendants are suppliers of engineering services to Pratt & Whitney.

In their class action complaint, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants conspired to restrict the recruitment and hiring of each other’s employees in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. Such agreements are commonly referred to as no-poach agreements. Specifically, the plaintiffs alleged that there were three types of illegal no-poach agreements: (1) an agreement between Pratt & Whitney and the engineering services firm defendants not to recruit or hire each other’s employees, which Pratt & Whitney primarily enforced; (2) an agreement that Pratt & Whitney would not hire from the engineering services firms without their prior written approval; and (3) additional bilateral agreements between certain firms and Pratt & Whitney limiting Pratt & Whitney’s ability to recruit and hire employees from that firm. Plaintiffs argued that this conspiracy restrained competition in the labor market for aerospace workers and suppressed employees’ compensation.

In order to obtain dismissal of the case with prejudice and an exchange of releases, Pratt & Whitney has agreed to pay $34 million into a settlement fund for the benefit of the class. Similarly, the engineering services firm defendants have agreed to pay $26.5 million into a similar fund. A hearing has been set for May 7, 2025 to determine final approval of the settlement after any objections or opt-outs from class members.