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Talking about wages is not the same as price fixing June 26, 2007

My friend Miguel read the discussion in the online facilitation listserv and decided to note it on his blog rather than reply there, which is fair enough. I do that sometimes.

eme ká eme
Price-fixing and communities of practice.

This week there was an exchange that ended thus:

On 21/06/07, Elissa Perry wrote:

I belong to two other “professional” lists and both have stated in their rules and enforce a no pricing discussion clause as this can be construed as illegal price-fixing.

One group¹s rules state “Rule: 1.5 Please don’t discuss freelance rates on this list, as it potentially violates antitrust/price-fixing laws. This is non-negotiable.”

Another group has a rule which states

“Rule 72b: Anybody who interferes with a free flowing discussion by introducing unnecessary words of caution, calling upon laws of foreign lands and quoting rules from unspecified other groups shall be 1) cautioned 2) banished 3) deported to Australia.”
–
Andy Roberts

Andy’s quip is worth reading :-). But Elissa had raised an interesting point. Indeed that was not the first time that I have seen debate about freelance prices quashed in a community resource. A printing and pre-press forum is notorious for the squabbles whenever labour issues are raised.

Communities of practice are a queer beast in this sense. They are somewhat of a “vertical labour union” gathering different levels of professionals, often bosses and workers side by side, so they are awkward places to debate the sharing of the spoils.

And, when the members are indeed all independent service providers… they become a prime coordination environment. In the unlikely event of a profession-wide membership (or a membership wide enough to determine prices) it can indeed be perceived as a cartel. Which can be illegal, or not, depending on the country.

I’m glad you liked the quip. I’ll probably blog a reply myself but meanwhile I’d like to say that I view communities of practice as essentially horizontal, not vertical. What practices do managers have in common with workers? Employers have more to discuss with each other, even in competitive corporations, as do workers of the same trade regardless of who they work for. So I would think it perfectly reasonable for practitioners who organise together in communities to discuss pay and conditions.
The confusion with price fixing cartels of the rich and powerful is not helpful, nor ever likely to be applicable.

( Read Miguel’s further comment on his site )

The mention of deportation to Australia, by the way, for readers unaquainted with UK history is a reference to the Tolpuddle Matryrs, who were dealt with such in the 1830s precisely for organising a combination of agricultural workers against poverty wages in the rural economy.

In response to another post, I wrote:

I would reject the idea that a group of people disclosing
their individual pay rates could constitute a cartel. Monopolies which
seek to inflate profits through artificial price fixing of commodities
and workers seeking to ascertain a going rate let alone a decent
living wage, are two very different scenarios.
The issuing of warnings about implausible legal ramifications is not a
neutral action, however well meant. For a start, there is the
question of which counry’s legal system, if any, holds sway over
different individuals. Presumably the people who would urge caution
would logically need to take the laws of the most repressive state
represented in this international group, and quel the discussion down
to a level which complies with the most draconion of legal systems.

It can’t be illegal in many places in the world simply for folks to
talk to each other, and if that were to be the case then the best
attitude to take is not to voluntarily export such repression onto the
internet, but to secure new freedoms there.

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