Disney along with DreamWorks Animation, Sony are facing a class-action lawsuit claiming that the companies agreed to not “poach” each other’s employees. They state that the scheme started when Pixar entered an agreement with George Lucas to not cold-call each other’s employee’s and to not raise any counter-offer made by the original employer. This was prior to both companies being a part of the same corporate umbrella. The suit goes on to claim that Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull went on the spread this agreement throughout the visual effects industry. The complaint is that this price-fixing causes wages to remain artificially low.
Recently, the Department of Justice concluded that these agreements “disrupted the normal price-setting mechanisms that apply in the labor setting.” The signed a settlement stating they would no longer enter in to these types of agreements. Now, Robert A. Nitsch, Jr. who was a Senior Character Effects Artist at DreamWorks Animation from 2007 to 2011 and a Cloth/Hair Technical Director at Sony Pictures Imageworks during 2004 is seeking damages for himself and other class members.
Disney did not have a comment regarding the pending litigation.