As we previously reported, the United States Supreme Court in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, (2022) 142 S. Ct. 1906, delivered a victory for California employers. The high court held that employers can compel arbitration of a plaintiff's individual claim under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA), and with the individual PAGA claim compelled to arbitration, the remaining non-individual PAGA representative claims must be dismissed for lack of standing.
A few weeks ago, the California Supreme Court agreed to review an appellate ruling about PAGA standing in light of Viking River. The high court is set to address the question in Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc. (S274671, Cal. Aug. 2022) of whether an employee who has been compelled to arbitrate claims under PAGA that are "premised on Labor Code violations actually sustained" by the employee maintains statutory standing to pursue "PAGA claims arising out of events involving other employees" in court or in any other forum agreed to by the parties.
Last week, the Court granted review to hear two more cases on the issue: Wing v. Chico Healthcare & Wellness Centre (S274939, Cal. Aug. 2022) and Sanchez v. MC Painting (S274780, Cal. Aug. 2022).
We will continue to follow the latest developments in this area.
Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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