The legal fallout from an alleged wage-fixing conspiracy among aerospace companies, including some based in Connecticut, mounted this week with the filing of yet another class action lawsuit.
In a statement, Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman said it filed an expanded suit Tuesday in federal court on behalf of engineers who were allegedly blocked from moving between companies — and increasing their pay — through illegal “no poaching” agreements, in which executives of competing firms agreed not to hire workers away from each other in order to keep labor costs down.
The lawsuit names East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney, QuEST Global Services NA, Belcan LLC, Cyient Inc. and Agilis Inc. as defendants.
Attorneys with Hagens Berman said they uncovered an even larger scheme than what was alleged by federal prosecutors, who made their investigation into the alleged wage-fixing arrangement known late last year with a round of indictments and arrests.
According to the lawsuit, conspiring managers and recruiters would meet for dinners to discuss how to limit personnel transfers among Pratt, Belcan and QuEST, a tactic they nicknamed “border patrol.”
A former recruiter at Belcan told lawyers that “the message from Pratt & Whitney to suppliers was, ‘Look, this is in our sandbox. You all play in our sandbox, so play nice,’” the lawsuit states.
Representatives for Pratt & Whitney did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the lawsuit Wednesday morning.
The expanded civil case comes about two months after a former outsourcing manager at Pratt, Mahesh Patel, was charged with “conspiracy in restraint of trade” by the U.S. Justice Department. Patel is accused of acting as the ringleader of the “no poaching” scheme, allegedly “berating” recruiters who failed to abide by the secret deal.
In mid-December, five alleged co-conspirators were also charged, including three men from Connecticut.
