Tech workers ask appeals court to reject Apple, Google bid

Employees suing Apple, Google and two other tech companies over hiring practices said an appeals court should not approve a $324.5 million settlement in the case.

The workers said that although they believed the $324.5 million deal originally warranted approval, US District Judge Lucy Koh had the proper authority to reject it and they would "defer to (Koh's) sound judgment about how best to oversee this litigation." In rejecting the proposed settlement, Judge Koh repeatedly referred to a related deal last year involving Disney and Intuit. Apple and Google workers got proportionally less in the latest agreement compared with the one involving Disney, Judge Koh wrote. To match the earlier settlement, the latest deal "would need to total at least $380 million," Judge Koh wrote. In the filing on Oct 14, the plaintiffs argued that the $324.5 million deal "ceased to exist" the moment Koh rejected it, by virtue of the settlement terms negotiated by both sides. The companies "should not complain about this state of affairs, given that it is their own doing," attorneys for the employees wrote.