In a recent Bloomberg Law article, Thompson Coburn Labor & Employment partner Michael Kun shared his perspective on California employers who are waiting for judicial clarity on how to defend against class action‑like lawsuits filed under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). These cases allow employees to sue on behalf of co-workers and the state for labor law violations—even as lawmakers have enacted reforms aimed at curbing such actions.
The California Supreme Court is expected to rule early this year on whether every PAGA lawsuit must include individual violation claims, even when an employee has signed a valid arbitration agreement requiring workplace disputes to be resolved outside of court.
A decision in favor of employers would limit workers’ ability to pursue “representative only” or “headless PAGA” claims, potentially reducing case volume and barring employees who lose their individual labor violation claim at arbitration from proceeding in court with representative claims, said Mike.
Headless PAGA emerged in recent years as the only viable way to keep group claims in court when individuals waived their right to participate in class actions due to mandatory arbitration, he said.
Read the full article here.
