On Monday April 13, 2020, DOJ and the FTC issued a joint statement warning employers that COVID-19 does not provide a reason to tolerate anticompetitive conduct that harms workers. The agencies said that they are on alert for collusion and other anticompetitive conduct in labor markets during the crisis. They are focused on agreements to lower wages or to reduce salaries or hours worked, especially in frontline fields like health care and for workers in warehouse and grocery stores.
Click here for the full statement.
Steptoe has been regularly providing antitrust compliance counseling to clients in a number of industries on issues related to the COVID-19 crisis, including issues relating to labor markets. We are proud to facilitate antitrust-compliant actions to help address this crisis.