Alcantar v. Hobart Serv., 800 F.3d 1047 (9th Cir. 2015)
Joséluis Alcantar filed this action against his employer to represent a putative class of service technicians for the time spent commuting in the employer’s service vehicles from their homes to their jobsites and then back again. Alcantar also alleged failure to provide the technicians with meal and rest breaks. The district court denied class
Safeway, Inc. v. Superior Court, 238 Cal. App. 4th 1138 (2015)
Plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit alleged claims against Safeway and Vons for failure to provide meal and rest breaks, failure to provide itemized pay statements, unfair business practices under the Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) and penalties under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”). Plaintiffs asserted that the employers
Verdugo v. Alliantgroup, L.P., 237 Cal. App. 4th 141 (2015)
Rachel Verdugo, an associate director in the Irvine office of Alliantgroup, filed this putative class action against her employer for various violations of the California Labor Code governing overtime compensation, meal and rest breaks, vacation pay, the Private Attorneys General Act and accurate wage statements. When she was hired, Verdugo had signed an “Employment
Williams v. Superior Court, 236 Cal. App. 4th 1151 (2015)
Michael Williams was an employee of Marshalls of CA in Costa Mesa, California. After slightly more than a year of employment, Williams brought a representative action against Marshalls under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”), alleging Marshalls had failed to provide its employees with meal and rest breaks, accurate wage
When the California Supreme Court decided Iskanian v. CLS Transp. Los Angeles, LLC, 59 Cal. 4th 348 (2014), this June, some legal commentators assumed that employees could not waive pre-litigation claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Those assumptions may have been premature. As we noted here, at least one federal court refused to apply Iskanian forcing an employee’s individual PAGA claims
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Iskanian v. CLS Transp. Los Angeles, LLC, upholding class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements. This means that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2011 opinion in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion is to be given full force and effect in the employment setting in California. That said, however, Iskanian distinguishes the right of an employee
Baumann v. Chase Inv. Servs., 2014 WL 983587 (9th Cir. 2014)
Joseph Baumann sued his employer, Chase Investment Services Corporation, under the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), alleging claims for unpaid overtime, meal breaks and rest periods and timely expense reimbursements. Baumann further alleged his potential share of any recovery and attorney’s fees would be less than $75,000. Chase removed the action under the
Laura Reathaford is featured in a video interview on California PAGA-related class actions. Click here for video.
Deleon, a former retail sales representative for Verizon Wireless, filed suit on behalf of himself and other aggrieved employees seeking civil penalties under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (Lab. Code, § 2698 et seq.) for violation of Labor Code section 223, which prohibits the secret underpayment of wages.
Deleon’s compensation plan included commission payments, which Verizon could recover (or “charge
The plaintiff in Iskanian v. CLS Transp. Los Angeles, LLC, brought a putative class action and a representative action under California’s Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) for various wage and hour violations. During his employment, Iskanian agreed that he would not assert class action or representative action claims against his employer and, instead, agreed to submit any legal claims he had to binding arbitration.
The California Court of Appeal for the Second District held that the employee was bound by his agreement. Relying on the United States Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, the Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts any state law prohibiting class action waivers in arbitration agreements. The Court also found that Concepcion overruled Gentry v. Superior Court – a California Supreme Court decision which held that class action waivers in arbitration agreements are unenforceable if class arbitration would be more efficient than individual litigation. Rejecting this notion, the Court stated, “a rule like Gentry – requiring Courts to determine whether to impose class arbitration on parties who contractually rejected it – cannot be considered consistent with the objective of enforcing arbitration agreements according to their terms.”