The California Court of Appeal has said that a motion to stay actions filed under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA), on the basis of pending arbitration, should not be granted because the PAGA claimants were not parties to the arbitration proceedings.

In Leenay v. The Superior Court of San Bernardino County, the plaintiff filed a PAGA lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court against her former employer – Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC – on behalf of the company’s current and former commissioned employees.

The plaintiff alleged that Lowe’s violated provisions of California’s Labor Code by miscalculating premium pay when compensating employees for missed meal periods and overtime hours, by failing to ensure that wage statements disclosed the information necessary to determine how the company was calculating overtime premium, and by failing to provide timely and uninterrupted meal periods.

In the case of Ceniceros, et al. v. Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC, the petitioners asked the San Bernardino County Superior Court to coordinate eight PAGA actions filed against Lowe’s. That court ordered six of the eight actions, including that of the plaintiff’s, to be coordinated.

The company filed a motion to stay relating to the coordinated PAGA actions until over 50 arbitration proceedings were resolved. The claimants in those arbitration matters were past or present Lowe’s employees at different California locations who filed individual lawsuits alleging various wage and...

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