We invite you to review our newly-posted September 2020 California Employment Law Notes, a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law. The highlights include:
Davidson v. O’Reilly Auto Enter., LLC, 968 F.3d 955 (9th Cir. 2020)
Kia Davidson worked as a delivery specialist at one of O’Reilly’s stores in San Bernardino. In this putative class action, Davidson alleged that she and other employees did not receive their rest breaks as required by state law based upon the fact that O’Reilly’s policy documents required 10-minute rest breaks for every four
Salter v. Quality Carriers, Inc., 2020 WL 5361459 (9th Cir. 2020)
Clayton Salter, a truck driver, filed this putative class action against his employer, Quality Carriers and Quality Distribution, alleging that he and the other class members had been misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees. Quality removed the action to federal court, asserting the amount in controversy exceeded $5 million as required by the
Brady v. AutoZone Stores, 960 F.3d 1172 (9th Cir. 2020)
Michael Brady sued AutoZone Stores for alleged violations of Washington State’s meal break laws. After several years of litigation, the district court denied Brady’s motion for class certification; Brady then settled his individual claims with AutoZone. Although the settlement agreement stated that it was “not intended to settle or resolve Brady’s Class Claims,”
Oliver v. Konica Minolta Bus. Solutions USA, Inc., 2020 WL 3446865 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020)
In this putative class action, plaintiffs Michael Oliver and Norris Cagonot sued their employer for compensation for the time they and other service technicians spent driving their own personal vehicles to the first customer site in the morning and from the last customer site in the evening. Service technicians
Kec v. Superior Court, 2020 WL 3869721 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020)
Nichole Kec brought individual, class and Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims against her employer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al. Kec had signed a predispute contractual waiver of class actions and any “other representative action,” including a PAGA claim. The arbitration agreement further stated that it was “not modifiable nor severable” and
Adams v. West Marine Prods., Inc., 958 F.3d 1216 (9th Cir. 2020)
Adrianne Adams filed a putative wage and hour class action in state court, which her former employer (West Marine) removed to federal court under the federal Class Action Fairness Act “CAFA”. Invoking the discretionary home state controversy exception to CAFA jurisdiction, the district court declined to exercise jurisdiction and ordered the
For years, federal courts in California have been inundated with wage and hour class actions. Because these cases often clogged district court dockets for months (and, sometimes, even years) on end, the Central District of California issued the former Local Rule 23-3, which set a 90-day deadline to file a motion for class certification from the filing of a complaint in or removal of an