Keller North America, a unit of the London Geotechnical Geotechnical Giant, Keller Group, has begun the mediation of a federal demand against the contractors of the smallest rival in the United States, Berkel & Co., who claims that he last year interfered with the first and unfairly competed.
The Keller Group operates in 40 countries and has 10,000 employees, ranking the number 17 of the list of contractors specializing in ENR 600. Berkel, based in Bonner Springs, Kan., Has about 750 employees in eight North -American offices.
Berkel denies allegations against him, but federal judges often require civilian demand parts to try to reach a mediated agreement and to avoid the time and cost of a full judgment.
Keller sued Berkel in the Federal Court of Kansas City, Kan. Last year, accusing the signing of delicate interference, unfair competence and unfair enrichment. In a modified complaint filed in May, Keller repeated his application for the court to show Berkel to use the 11 managers for a year. Demand aims to prevent employees from interfering with Keller’s customers and using any company -owned information.
While Berkel was a direct competitor of Keller in the provision of services in founding, assembly, anchors, tearing and soft drinks, Keller said that he has much more experience in the growing field of land improvement and that the United States firm’s scope and ability were “limited.”
Keller wrote that at the end of August 2024, he “unexpectedly received a flow of resignations from key employees in his Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Maryland operations,” all of which were “positioned to divert from the company” other members of his work force along with intellectual property and trade relations.
“The resignations took place at a rate of one or two a week until the week of September 23, 2024,” Keller said, “when the resignations were accelerated and a group of six employees resigned Very. “”
Berkel, responding to the complaint modified in June, denied that his recent hires violated non -competent agreements, that his actions in the contracts were illegal and that each of the 11 employee agreements hired a “valid and required contract”.
The judge denies Keller’s motion
Judge Julie Robinson handed a setback to Keller in March when he denied the company’s motion to immediately block Berkel to use the 11 executives. She ruled that Keller so far had not shown that he had been significantly damaged by the loss of employees or for alleged violations of non -competent agreements.
In his narrative, Robinson said that Berkel had wanted to start some new offices. He said that Keller presented tests that Berkel has had little presence in the growing land improvement market and has historically focused on profound foundations in the increased distribution pile industry. “More recently, Berkel began to do land improvement projects, completing its largest in August 2023 and that a Keller consolidation plan had caused some executives, the judge wrote.
The Plan “imposed the uniformity that some employees annoyed”, many who had spent decades with “local subsidiary companies and registered that their local cultures were replaced by a more uniform corporate culture,” he said, adding that Keller also began collecting performance -based bonuses that had not been unknown before.
Although a Keller Regional Office is experiencing a benefit to benefit as a result of lost experience, Robinson said that Berkel’s hiring have generally met the limits of geographical competence in its non-competent agreements and that, based on the company’s testimony, it has not lost “customers or contracts, a small volume of business or good will”.
The start of mediation was recorded in a judicial file on July 9.
