The Adolph v. Uber Ruling Thwarts The U.S. Supreme Court’s Landmark Viking Decision
In a widely anticipated but unsurprising ruling, the California Supreme Court on July 17, 2023 issued its decision in Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc., (S274671) weighing in on the United States Supreme Court’s (“SCOTUS”) recent landmark decision in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, (2022) 596 U.S. __, [142 S. Ct 1906] (Viking).
In Viking, the SCOTUS had ruled that California employers can compel PAGA wage and hour cases to individual arbitration via an employee arbitration agreement and that employees may thereafter potentially lose their standing to represent other employees in a PAGA action, thus subjecting the entire PAGA case to being dismissed. [1] In so holding, Viking partially overruled a prior California Supreme Court decision, Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles. LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348, 379 (Iskanian) which had essentially outlawed these so-called “PAGA waivers.“
However, the California Supreme Court in Adolph has blunted the Viking decision by ruling that the named plaintiff in a PAGA representative action retains their standing to represent the PAGA class of similarly aggrieved employees, despite having their own individual wage and hour claim compelled to arbitration.
The Upshot of the Decision
The Adolph decision marks another blow to California employers under the state’s wage and hour laws. There had been great hope for employers when SCOTUS took the rare...
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