In brief
Support may be building on Beacon Hill for a bill that would give employees and other interested parties, including nonprofits and labor unions, the right to sue employers on the state’s behalf for alleged wage-and-hour violations.
Whether an employment attorney thinks that’s good news likely depends on whether the lawyer represents management or employees.
In each of the last three legislative sessions, Rep. Tram T. Nguyen of Essex has filed a bill at least loosely modeled on California’s controversial Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA. This year’s version is H.1916. One difference this time is that a similar bill has also been proposed in the Senate, S.1300, which has 17 co-sponsors.
Nguyen’s bill would add a new section, 150D, to G.L.c. 149, which would allow for the filing of civil complaints that would be deemed private attorney general actions. As such, they would not be subject to any class action waiver or mandatory arbitration clause an employee may have signed. The person bringing the representative action on behalf of the state would also not have to wait for an arbitration decision or award before heading to court.
If the private attorney general action succeeds, affected employees who joined the case would be eligible for treble damages, while the party who pursued the action would be awarded the costs of litigation and reasonable attorneys’ fees.
On top of that, the employer...
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