When the US Supreme Court ruled in June that individual claims under California’s Private Attorneys General Act must be arbitrated if a valid arbitration agreement between the parties exists, it left several unanswered questions.
The Supreme Court in Viking River Cruises held that plaintiffs can be forced to bring their individual PAGA claims to arbitration, and that they thereafter lack standing to pursue representative PAGA actions in state court. The court, however, welcomed California’s highest court to weigh in on this latter issue concerning representative PAGA claims.
Enacted by California lawmakers in 2004, PAGA deputized employees to bring qui tam actions on behalf of the state against violators of wage-hour, workplace safety, and other workplace laws. In addition to individual claims, employees were empowered to bring non-individual or representative actions on behalf of other workers.
Now all eyes are on California’s Supreme Court, which will decide in Adolph v Uber Technologies whether an employee who has been compelled pursuant to Viking River to arbitrate her individual PAGA claim is thereby precluded from pursuing a larger representative PAGA claim in court.
With so much riding on the court’s decision, parties now pursuing settlement of PAGA claims may be tempted...
Pakistan on April 22, Thursday urged the United Nations to call upon India to restore full implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), warning that New Delhi’s “illegal” decision to hold the ...