Appellate Court Backs Workers’ Right to Be Free from Anti-Competitive “No Poach” Agreements among Temp Agencies

Illinois – On June 3, 2022, the First District Appellate Court of Illinois rejected an attempt by a company and its three staffing agencies to have a lawsuit alleging anti-competitive activity filed by the IL Attorney General thrown out of court. The lawsuit alleges that, with the coordination of the company, the three staffing agencies, who are competitors, suppressed workers’ wages by agreeing not to “poach” or hire any other agency’s workers so the workers could not get the agencies to compete with the others for her services. The lawsuit also claims that the company directed each of the three agencies to pay their workers a common wage rate below the market rate to reduce labor costs and avoid competition among the agencies, thereby keeping wages from naturally rising.  

The court’s opinion sided with the Amicus Brief filed by National Legal Advocacy Network, Raise the Floor Alliance and National Employment Law Project in support of the State of Illinois’ case to combat anti-competitive conduct by the three temporary staffing agencies and the company using their labor.  

The staffing agencies argued that the Illinois Antitrust Act should not apply to them because they are regulated by another law, the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, and because the scheme was coordinated by the company, which was not a competitor. The Appellate Court rejected both arguments and rejected the staffing agencies’ attempt to toss the lawsuit.  
 

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