The California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District upheld the construction industry collective bargaining agreement exemption to the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) in Oswald v. Murray Plumbing and Heating Corporation.
Labor Code Section 2699.6
Under Labor Code section 2699.6, construction employees who perform work under a valid collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in effect any time before January 1, 2025, that meets specific requirements, are not covered under PAGA. To be exempted from PAGA, the CBA must expressly provide for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of employees, premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked, and for the employee to receive a regular hourly pay rate of not less than 30 percent more than the state minimum wage rate, and the agreement must do all of the following:
(1) Prohibit all of the violations of this code that would be redressable pursuant to this part and provides for a grievance and binding arbitration procedure to redress those violations;
(2) Expressly waive the requirements of PAGA in unambiguous terms; and
(3) Authorize the arbitrator to award any and all remedies otherwise available under PAGA.
Read the full article on Jackson Lewis’ California Workplace Law Blog.