It's a big win for California employers facing lawsuits over workplace violations
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) partly overrides California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), which allows employees to sue over workplace violations on behalf of the state, even if they had agreed to resolve their disputes through individual arbitration.
In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court said that PAGA allows employees to be released from binding arbitration agreements signed when they were hired. The decision overturns a 2014 California Supreme Court ruling that allows PAGA to circumvent such agreements. In Iskanian v. CLS Transp. Los Angeles LLC, it was ruled that a worker's PAGA suit isn’t subject to their arbitration agreement because they litigate as a proxy for the state, which can't be required to comply with an arbitration procedure it didn't sign on to, according to Law360.
This most recent case involves former Viking River Cruises Inc. sales representative Angie Moriana, who sued in 2018 on behalf of hundreds of workers over alleged violations of several provisions of California’s wage-and-hour laws. Moriana waived her right to bring such a suit when she signed an agreement with the company, but avoided arbitration by bringing a claim under PAGA.
The case came before the Supreme Court after a California appellate panel in September 2020 said that the Iskanian rule prevented Viking River from pushing Moriana's PAGA claim into...
Police say Nepal’s rescue fraud case is real, but claims that guides poisoned tourists remain unproven. Nepal’s mountain tourism industry is facing fresh scrutiny after a major investigation into f...