Adolph v. Uber Technologies
The California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Adolph v. Uber Technologies. Previously, the US Supreme Court upheld arbitration in “Private Attorney General Act” cases which Plaintiffs may file. The USSct left “standing” as an issue left to the states. Adolph was an employee of Uber, and the question was whether Mr. Adolph had standing to sue on behalf of other “aggrieved” employees under the PAGA. The California Supreme Court answered in the affirmative, with one caveat; the employer can compel arbitration as to the individual employee, and if the employee does not prevail, the employee does not have standing to pursue claims on behalf of other “aggrieved” employees. PAGA is NOT a class action, it pursues penalties only for employer who violate the wage and hour laws of California, and the government gets 75% of any judgement/settlement under PAGA.
Big business and corporate interests are already sponsoring an anti PAGA “ballot initiative” to get rid of an attorney’s ability to pursue PAGA claims on behalf of a client and other “aggrieved” employees, so beware of that ballot initiate coming in 2024. The Private Attorney General Act was designed to allow attorneys to represent aggrieved employees (not just one), to save the State people and resources. Seems a good deal to the State; the private attorney generals pursue valid claims that the Attorney General does not or cannot, and the state gets 75% of any judgment or settlement, bringing in revenue to fight other cases and helping the General Fund. The client/attorneys take all the risk and work. Please be aware of what businesses are doing, and if they comply with the law, there is no case in any event. Plus, the court affirmed the employee has to arbitrate FIRST. If they lose, they have no claim and cannot represent “aggrieved” employees, because they are not, nor were they ever, one of those employees. You have to be “aggrieved” to make a claim under PAGA, meaning the employer violated your wages, vacation pay, termination pay, meal and/or rest break periods, overtime, or misclassified you as “salaried” (to avoid paying you overtime) when you are an employee based on the tasks you perform for your employer. At the Law Office of John P Martin, we have experience with dealing with these labor code violations, and we are here to help you.
