California Supreme Court Strengthens Wage and Hour Enforcement Rights

The Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), California Labor Code §§ 2698-2699, allows employees to sue employers for wage and hour violations and recover monetary penalties for those violations. Employees may bring PAGA claims for violations of their own wage-and-hour rights and on behalf of other employees. But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the ability to bring such claims in Viking River Cruises. In Viking River Cruises, the high court held that an employer and employee could waive the employee’s right to bring PAGA claims to court, and instead, arbitrate them. The question of whether bringing wage and hour claims in arbitration, as compared to in court, favors workers or only employers remains an ongoing hot-button issue.

Viking River Cruises left open the question of whether an employee who waived the right to bring PAGA claims to court and agreed to arbitrate them would still be able to bring PAGA claims on behalf of other affected employees.

In the recently issued Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc. decision, the California Supreme Court held that such an employee can do so—Adolph is a victory for employees seeking civil penalties for wage-and-hour violations on behalf of their co-workers in court, even when the employee herself must arbitrate her own such claims. The Court explained that PAGA claimants may litigate PAGA claims in court on behalf of other employees even if their own claims must be arbitrated.

Accordingly, Adolph leaves the door open for PAGA class-action suits to proceed in court even if the plaintiff has waived an individual right to litigate their own PAGA claim in that forum. Thus, Adolph is a victory for employees seeking civil penalties on behalf of their co-workers for wage-and-hour violations.

For more information on the subject of bringing wage and hour claims in arbitration as compared to in court, see our previous articles on this topic here, here, here, and here, as well as a recent law review article on the subject. You can also reach out to your labor law counsel.