Legal Question in Employment Law in New Jersey
employment
My wifes supermarket Stop n Shop was purchased by a competor Shop Rite Wakefern is the main owners of shop rite and they have indivial owners of their stores. 9 stores were sold to 4 different owners and the employees are losing their jobs, and where told to apply at shop rite website, but today she found out that the owners of the different store are not allowing the applicants to apply for the other three store owenrs. Only the one that her store was sold too. The thing is they bought the stores and fixtures they did not buy the employees or contract. Is it right for them to limit the employee options for where they want to seek employment and work. How about if they hold an employee back from applying at another shop rite and then they don't hire them, so they have denied you the right to seek employment from the other store which by this time might have all their newly hired employees.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: employment
An agreement among employers to divide the market for employees by not hiring certain employees is a vertical restraint on trade that is actionable under federal anti-trust laws. The outcome is not entirely certain because these laws are assessed on a balancing test basis and the employers will have the opportunity to show that there is a legitimate, non-anticompetitive reason for the agreement. However, I can't imagine what that might be.
The usual difficulty with such cases is proof. Collecting and analyzing large amounts of statistical data to show who applied where and who was hired where is expensive. However, if you have an outright statement from the employer that this policy is in effect, things get easier.
If you wife is simply looking for an opportunity to apply elsewhere, contact by a lawyer (perhaps even without disclosing her name) many be enough to convince the store that it had better entertain all applications.
If I can be of further help to you, call or email.
See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm
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