California Supreme Court limits the types of penalties recoverable under PAGA actions
California Supreme Court Hands Employers A Rare Victory, Trims Bloated PAGA Claims
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court held that private litigants may not recover unpaid wages under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). See ZB, N.A. v. Superior Court (Lawson) (Cal. S. Ct. Sept. 12, 2019).
In a rearguard effort to fight employment arbitration agreements, which usually include class action waivers, plaintiffs’ lawyers have been routinely filing PAGA representative actions in an effort to stay in court and out of arbitration. Plaintiffs relied on Thurman …
Arbitration Wars: A Report from the Front
Please see the linked Los Angeles Daily Journal article for details about some major recent developments affecting employment arbitration in California.…
EEOC Presses Pause on Collection of EEO-1 Pay Data After This Year’s September 30 Reporting Deadline (US)
As we have previously reported here, companies with at least 100 employees must collect and report 2017 and 2018 employee pay data information, broken down by race/ethnicity, sex, and job category (“Component 2 data”) as part of their annual EEO-1 report. This Component 2 data remains due to be filed with the EEOC by September 30, 2019.…
Whistleblowing in the workplace: learning points for HR, part 4 (UK)
Learning point 4: a disclosure does not have to be either true or in the public interest to qualify for protection, provided the worker has a reasonable belief that both are the case…
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Part 2 – what about third parties? (UK)
For the second in our series on sexual harassment in the workplace, we look at how the law as it currently stands protects individuals from sexual harassment by third parties such as visitors and customers.…
2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back: California Supreme Court Nixes Plaintiffs’ Ability to Recover Unpaid Wages Under PAGA, but Forecloses Defendants’ Path to Arbitration
On Sept. 12, 2019, the California Supreme Court in ZB, N.A. v. Superior Court of San Diego County (Lawson) delivered a victory for California employers, clarifying that a plaintiff bringing a Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) action may not recover as a “civil penalty” the “wages” referenced in Cal. Labor Code section 558, and thereby limited the monetary recovery workers can seek under PAGA.
PAGA allows a plaintiff-employee to seek civil penalties on behalf of…
A Discussion on Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
As part of my practice focusing on labor & employment counseling, I have developed a passion for helping entrepreneurs set up their businesses and create their corporate cultures. All while navigating the bevy of employment laws! Next week, I have the great honor of joining Kourtney Kardashian, Giuliana Rancic and a roster of awesome leaders to inspire female entrepreneurs at the Create + Cultivate San Francisco conference. On September 21st, I’ll be a…
New York Bolsters Protections for Employees
On Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed several pieces of legislation that bolster New York’s growing workplace protections.
These laws will be implemented over the course of the next year. They will:
• Increase protections for employees who are members of protected classes as well as for those who have been sexually harassed;
• Prohibit nondisclosure agreements in discrimination cases, preventing employers from effectively silencing their employees;
• Prohibit mandatory arbitration provisions in discrimination cases, allowing…
Third Circuit Opinion Involving Uber Only Adds More Questions to the Dispute Over the Scope of the FAA Section 1 Residual Clause
Recent decisions have cast doubt on the enforcement of arbitration clauses in the context of the interstate transportation of goods, but will those limitations extend to the transportation of passengers? And what if the movement does not cross state lines?
In a Sept. 11, 2019, opinion, the Third Circuit found that the residual clause of the Federal Arbitration Act’s (FAA) Section 1 “may extend” to a class of Uber drivers “who transport passengers, so long…