[Info-vax] VMS Software, Inc. Acquires All OpenVMS Support Business from Hewlett Packard Enterprise

[IanD]

Yes, EDS tried that in Australia and got told to get lost

I worked for them for over 15 years. Great company, partially because we were isolated from the BS practices of the US

They tried bringing in a clause on all young graduates that you could not leave within a certain time period after you were sent on their training program (10 weeks, considered very good in the industry because recruiters used to line up to poach them on their return)

In Australia, we have the trade practices act, a part of which says you may not restrict someone's trade or practice and the clause trying to retain graduates went against that law and was deemed illegal.
Next they tried telling graduates they had to repay all the cost of the training, about $16k from memory (20+ years ago). That too was deemed illegal as it encumbered the employee too much and was deemed to fall foul of the trade practices act again.

Eventually, they settled on a 10% of the training cost to be paid back within I think 6 months of departure (I don't exactly remember the time frame). 

The only real fix for the continual poaching was to raise the pay rates of the graduates and to keep offering them high quality training and job movement within the company