APPLE, Google and two other Silicon Valley companies agreed on Thursday to pay $415 million (£274m) to kill a lawsuit alleging they formed an illegal cartel to prevent workers getting better-paid jobs.

The settlement filed in federal court revises a $324.5m (£214m) agreement that US District Judge Lucy Koh rejected as inadequate five months ago.

Judge Koh indicated that the roughly 64,000 workers in the case should be paid at least $380m (£251m), including lawyers’ fees.

The lawsuit sought $3 billion (£1.98bn) in damages that could have been tripled under US anti-cartel law.

The settlement, if approved, would avoid a trial over claims that Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe colluded not to recruit each other’s employees between 2005 and 2009.

The collusion stopped after the US Justice Department filed a complaint against participating companies in 2010.

The Justice Department case was settled without the companies admitting guilt or paying fines.

The evidence gathered in the ensuing class-action lawsuit hasn’t flattered top executives.

Late Apple boss Steve Jobs is depicted as the conniving ringleader of a scheme designed to minimise the chances that top computer programmers and other talented employees would leave.

The lawsuit contends the secret “no-poaching” agreements orchestrated by Jobs suppressed employees’ wages.

And former Google boss

Eric Schmidt, who was on Apple’s board at the time, sometimes took drastic action to make sure his company didn’t cross Jobs.

In 2007 Schmidt fired a Google recruiter merely for contacting an Apple engineer, according to internal emails.

Both Apple and Google denied any wrongdoing.

Intuit, Pixar Animation Studios and Lucasfilm also participated in the no-poaching ring, but they agreed a $20m (£13m) settlement last year.

If Judge Koh approves Thursday’s deal, eligible workers at Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe will receive an average $5,200 (£3,426) apiece.

They could have received an average of more than $100,000 (£66,000) each had the case gone to trial and resulted in possible damages of $9bn (£5.95bn) but the workers’ lawyers decided to settle after concluding it would have been difficult to prove the alleged conspiracy.

The lawyers are seeking fees of up to $82.3m (£54m).