CalMatters
On Oct. 12, 2003, five days after California voters decided he should be ousted from the governorship, Gray Davis signed Senate Bill 796, a valuable gift to the labor unions, attorneys and other groups that supported him during the recall election.
The measure created the Private Attorneys General Act, which opened the door to lawsuits against employers for alleged violations of state laws governing wages and working conditions.
California is the only state with such a law and nearly two decades later, PAGA, as it’s known, is the subject of a potential ballot measure and new skirmishes in the Legislature while the U.S Supreme Court weighs whether it should be erased because it conflicts with federal law.
Davis was able to sign SB 796, despite the Oct. 7, 2003 recall vote, because he remained governor until the election results were certified and successor Arnold Schwarzenegger took office five weeks later.
At the time, only the state’s Department of Industrial Relations was authorized to investigate labor law complaints and issue fines. Unions and employment attorneys contended that the state agency was overworked and that employers could easily escape penalties by requiring their workers, as a condition of employment, to agree that any disputes be subjected to arbitration rather than legal action.
PAGA authorizes lawsuits even when employees have agreed to subject disputes to arbitration.
Over the 18 years since PAGA became law, thousands of cases have been...
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