The U.S. Department of Justice is issuing a stern warning, aswell as the offer of guidance, to companies that might considerengaging in illegal “no poaching” or wage-fixing deals withcompetitors.

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“Workers are entitled to the benefits of a competitive marketfor their services,” the department said in a statement.

“They are harmed if companies that would ordinarily competeagainst each other to recruit and retain employees agree to fixwages or other terms of employment or enter into so-called"no-poaching" agreements by agreeing not to recruit each other’semployees.”

In addition to that, going forward, it intends to criminallyprosecute companies that engage in such practices. The departmentsays it plans to offer information to human resource professionalson how to comply with the law.

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While HR personnel are probably not the ones most often devisingwage-fixing policies, they are often responsible for implementingillegal practices approved by company leaders. The JusticeDepartment is encouraging HR officials to identify illegalpractices and report them.

In the past, the Justice Department has mostly gone afteranti-competitive practices with lawsuits, not criminal complaints.In 2010, it targeted a number of prominent Silicon Valley companiesfor engaging in what it alleged was an agreement between executivesto not recruit each other’s employees.

Indeed, a number of emails sent by the late Steve Jobs showedthe founder of Apple emailing Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, askinghim why an Apple employee had been contacted by a Googleheadhunter. Schmidt apologized and informed Jobs the Googlerecruiter had been fired in response. Jobs responded with a smileyface.

Related: What about wage insurance?

While the Justice Department settled its suit with a number ofcompanies, employees of Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel separatelyfiled a suit in 2013 alleging their wages had been suppressed bythe illegal no-poaching agreement. The four companies agreed to a$415 million settlement last year, while a number of other techcompanies allegedly ensnared in the conspiracy agreed to paysmaller amounts.

The 11-page document provided by the JusticeDepartment includes a Q&A about how HR personnel can avoidrunning afoul of the law.