More than three years after its landmark decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana to determine whether Epic Systems extends to arbitration agreements that include waivers of representative actions brought under the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).
Employers with operations in California, who have been plagued by the filing of boilerplate PAGA actions, could be heard to breathe a sigh of relief.
PAGA is a unique statute that allows a single employee to file suit on behalf of all allegedly “aggrieved employees” for purported violations of California’s Labor Code and seek enormous penalties – and enormous attorneys’ fees – without having to go through the procedural requirements to proceed as a class action.
As we previously discussed, in Epic Systems, the Supreme Court delivered a tremendous victory to employers facing wage-hour class actions by upholding the use of class action waivers in arbitration agreements. But whether such agreements are enforceable as to PAGA claims has been a hotly contested issue in California.
Before Epic Systems, and especially after the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, employers in California have increasingly used arbitration agreements with provisions whereby employees waive their right to bring or participate in not only class actions, but also PAGA representative actions.
In 2014, after ...
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