The state Supreme Court on Thursday narrowed the ability of government workers in California to claim or enforce rights under state labor laws.
In a unanimous ruling, the court said thousands of hospital employees at Alameda Health System are not protected by state laws requiring daily meal and rest breaks for private employees. And in the same ruling, the justices said the Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA — a California law allowing workers to join together and sue employers for violating labor laws — applies only to private employees and not to state or local government workers.
The ruling was welcomed by employers’ attorneys and criticized by their opponents.
The court’s action “helps to ensure that public agencies charged with providing essential public services are not subjected to crippling statutory penalties and fees that would jeopardize their ability to carry out their public missions,” said Ryan McGinley-Stempel, a lawyer for Alameda Health System.
But Ari Stiller, attorney for the California Employment Lawyers Association, said the ruling “cuts out public employees from enforcing labor rights under PAGA.”
He noted that the court “has previously called PAGA one of California’s most important laws for enforcing the Labor Code.” And while the Legislature could pass a new law that reverses the ruling, Stiller said it is unlikely in the wake of a recent compromise agreement between lawmakers, Gov. Gavin Newsom and employers’ groups to rewrite PAGA, reduce...
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