In Lower Silesia, a powerful industrial hub, an unprecedented situation occurred.
Employee market under UOKiK scrutiny
Entrepreneurs operating in different industries might have thought that instead of bidding for benefits and raising wages, it would be easier to sign an informal non-aggression pact.
This is a "no-poach" mechanism, well known from Silicon Valley, where years ago tech giants from the Big Tech sector paid hundreds of millions of USD in damages for similar practices.
When there is a shortage of workers, the free market should dictate higher valuations of "assets", namely specialists. Such a conspiracy brutally deactivates this healthy mechanism.
The suspicions were serious enough that officials did not limit themselves to sending warning letters. Acting with court approval and police assistance, they conducted surprise searches at company headquarters in Wrocław and the Bolesławiec county.
The target of the inspectors included well-known brands: Toyota Boshoku Poland, Toyota Boshoku Europe, Bader Polska, Gerresheimer Bolesławiec and Hoerbiger Automotive.
This list perfectly illustrates the key feature of the case: an absolute lack of product ties. We are dealing with the automotive sector, pharmaceutical packaging production, and logistics services. These entities do not compete for the same end customer.
However, locally, all these plants draw from the same pool of workers. For an experienced engineer, logistics specialist, or machine operator, changing club colors within one region is a natural path to financial advancement. Unless someone deliberately blocks such a transfer.
"Entrepreneurs operating in the local market have access to the same pool of workers and compete for them. Therefore, joint arrangements that aim to prevent or hinder a change of employer constitute a restriction of competition in the market. This is especially harmful to local communities because it prevents job changes regardless of qualifications. We are checking whether such a situation could have occurred between the mentioned enterprises," said Tomasz Chróstny, president of UOKiK.
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Frozen salaries and transfer bans
The investigation will check whether Lower Silesian players set rigid salary ceilings, coordinated employee benefit packages, and committed to mutual non-hiring of each other's employees.
In the labor market this simply means one thing: artificially suppressing natural wage growth and blocking the professional development of people who drive the regional economy with their daily hard work.
It is worth emphasizing that current UOKiK actions are conducted in the case, not against specific entrepreneurs. This is a phase of collecting hard evidence from disks and servers secured during rapid raids. If the collected materials confirm the black scenario, the full antitrust proceedings will begin and official charges will be filed.
The business consequences could be extremely brutal for companies. Firms that participated in the unlawful agreement face a financial penalty of up to 10% of their annual turnover.
Given the scale of such giants, the amounts reach tens of millions of PLN. However, the real nightmare is personal fines, as managers responsible for the conspiracy could be fined up to 2 million PLN.
See also: Fake promotions at H&M and Peek & Cloppenburg. Giants will be fined by UOKiK
Source: Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
