New rules prohibiting wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements kick in Friday in an effort to crack down on companies undermining competition at employees' expense.
The end of June wave of legislative changes rolls on.
Today, an amendment to the Competition Act comes into force that may have significant implications for employers and employees.
Basically, wage-fixing and ‘no compete’ deals between employers will now be on the same criminal level as price-fixing rather than only being under the civil law provisions of the act.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but it does send a strong signal.
The penalty for violating the wage-fixing and no-poaching provisions includes imprisonment for up to 14 years, and/or a fine to be set at the discretion of the court.
I don't see prison time actually being handed out much for this. Any big corporation that does this will also have insulated themselves from liability. Best case scenario, they nominate some fall guy and the execs get off scot-free.