Gig employers including Uber and Lyft hoping for clarity about whether a unique California labor law can force arbitration of labor law claims brought on the state’s behalf may get some answers before summer in the latest episode of a long-running dispute between the US and California supreme courts.
One of the six cases SCOTUS sent back to California last year is up for oral argument before a state appellate panel Tuesday afternoon. Moriana v. Viking River Cruises, in which the nation’s high court ruled courts can force workers to arbitrate individual claims, is returning to the California Court of Appeal, Second District which in September 2020 held plaintiff Angie Moriana had brought a representative claim that can’t be compelled to arbitration.
Moriana was a Viking sales representative who sued her former employer alleging state wage and hour violations. She’d agreed before hiring to submit any employment dispute to binding arbitration, but sued anyway under the California Private Attorneys General Act brought on the state’s behalf. The unique California law deputizes individuals to sue for labor violations and split the proceeds with the state in what companies say is a bounty bill.
Courts have held that arbitration can’t be forced absent a showing the state also consented to the agreement.
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