#WorkforceWednesday: ACA Preventive Coverage Mandate Blocked, Another No-Poach Loss for DOJ, and Employers Prepare for the End of the COVID-19 Emergencies - Employment Law This Week®
Taking the Pulse, A Health Care and Life Sciences Podcast | Episode 100: Marguerite Willis, Nexsen Pruet Attorney
On April 14, 2025, a federal jury convicted an executive in a wage-fixing conspiracy under the Sherman Act. This marks the first time, after many tries, that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has secured a conviction in a...more
On April 14, 2025, a federal jury in Nevada convicted a home healthcare nursing executive on one count of conspiracy to fix wages and five counts of wire fraud after a 15-day trial. The verdict represents the DOJ’s first...more
In the final days of the Biden administration, the FTC and DOJ jointly issued antitrust guidelines on business practices that impact workers that replace the 2016 Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals, which...more
Nearly seven years after first announcing its intent to criminally prosecute employers and individuals for anticompetitive conduct in labor markets, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ or Division) voluntarily...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently granted the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) motion to dismiss the criminal charges it had previously brought against Surgical Care Affiliates, LLC and...more
In another blow to the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) efforts to criminalize “no-poach” and “wage-fixing” agreements, a federal judge terminated the DOJ’s latest “no-poach” case mid-trial before jury deliberations....more
At the end of last year, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) secured a guilty plea for wage fixing, resulting in its first criminal conviction with Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter saying: “[t]oday’s guilty plea...more
In 2022, antitrust authorities around the world were pursuing more investigations, bringing new types of cases, and making policy changes to spark even more enforcement actions. In the United States, the Department of...more
Antitrust compliance programs that are tailored to a company’s culture, line of business, and competitive conditions have long been worth their weight in gold. But as 2022 draws to a close, a looming economic slowdown and an...more
On October 27, 2022, VDA OC, LLC, (VDA) a Nevada health care staffing company, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition for the services of school nurses. According to the plea,...more
On January 28, 2022, a federal grand jury in Maine returned an indictment charging four managers of home health care agencies with participating in a conspiracy to suppress the wages and restrict the job mobility of Personal...more
It has been nearly a year since the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division (DOJ) made good on its promise to criminally charge companies that agree not to solicit each other's employees in so-called "no-poach"...more
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused upheaval across labor markets and resulted in what some have termed the “Great Resignation.” In the midst of these challenging labor market conditions, employers should be aware that the U.S....more
On July 9, 2021, as part of an executive order announced to promote competition and increase wages for workers, President Biden directed the Federal Trade Commission to consider two key areas affecting employers: first, “to...more
On Friday, July 9, 2021, President Biden issued a sweeping Executive Order that could have far-reaching implications for businesses across a broad spectrum of industries. The Executive Order takes a government-wide approach...more
The Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) continues to investigate hiring practices in a number of industries for potential antitrust violations as part of its effort to scrutinize, and in some instances,...more
Last week, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against a Nevada temporary staffing agency and manager who allegedly conspired with a competitor to fix wages for temporary nurses assigned to a public school district....more
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division is pushing criminal enforcement against companies for illegal wage-fixing among competitors in the hiring market. ...more
Agreements between companies not to solicit or to hire each other’s employees (“no poach agreements”) have been in antitrust enforcers’ crosshairs for several years now. In 2016, the DOJ and the FTC released their joint...more
More than four years after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly released the Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals in 2016 (Antitrust Guidance), the DOJ has...more
With increased scrutiny of anticompetitive conduct in labor markets, companies need to adopt proactive compliance efforts to avoid prosecution. The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Antitrust Division recently announced...more
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) has recently announced two indictments alleging criminal antitrust violations against employers involving wage negotiation and no-poach theories. The cases, which...more
In the past month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has made good on its 2016 threat, contained in its Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals (“Antitrust Guidance”) to bring criminal charges against people or...more
Since issuing its 2016 Antitrust Guidance affirming focus on enforcement of fair competition in labor-employment buy-side markets and warning of criminal remedies for those participating in illegal no-poach agreements, the...more
What happened? The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) announced that, on January 5, 2021, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Surgical Care Affiliates LLC and its related entity...more