Intelligence Community Job Poaching – Unethical and Illegal

In the Federal Government, large teams of companies win large contracts for providing engineers and technical candidates in government Agencies. This is particularly true In the Intelligence Community where projects are large and complex requiring a multitude of subcontractors with diverse skills. For valid administrative and other management reasons the contracts are awarded to large prime contractors who then subcontract with  other (usually smaller) entities.

This teaming approach works well as long as there is trust in the system. But sometimes one or more companies steal employees from other companies to build their own business, usually at the expense of team morale. The practice of searching out a competitor’s employees is called “job poaching” and it is highly unethical and ruinous to the effectiveness of the entire team.

Furthermore, in the Virginia it is illegal with civil and criminal remedies available to the injured party.

The state of Virginia is serious about job poaching:

§ 18.2-499. Combinations to injure others in their reputation, trade, business or profession; rights of employees.

A. Any two or more persons who combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake or concert together for the purpose of (i) willfully and maliciously injuring another in his reputation, trade, business or profession by any means whatever or (ii) willfully and maliciously compelling another to do or perform any act against his will, or preventing or hindering another from doing or performing any lawful act, shall be jointly and severally guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Such punishment shall be in addition to any civil relief recoverable under § 18.2-500.

B. Any person who attempts to procure the participation, cooperation, agreement or other assistance of any one or more persons to enter into any combination, association, agreement, mutual understanding or concert prohibited in subsection A of this section shall be guilty of a violation of this section and subject to the same penalties set out in subsection A.

C. This section shall not affect the right of employees lawfully to organize and bargain concerning wages and conditions of employment, and take other steps to protect their rights as provided under state and federal laws.

(Code 1950, § 18.1-74.1:1; 1964, c. 623; 1972, c. 469; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1994, c. 534.)

For those contractors on large contracting teams who lose valuable employees to another unethical job poaching teammate should keep the Virginia statute in mind as a defense against the damage caused by job poaching.