Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc. (2023)
California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) permits an “aggrieved employee” to bring a representative action on behalf of current or former employees to recover civil penalties for wage-related violations of California’s Labor Code. Until recently, California law prohibited the division of PAGA claims into individual and representative claims.
However, last year, the Supreme Court of the United States held—in Viking River Cruises v. Moriana (2023) 142 S.Ct. 1906—that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempted this state-law rule. Viking River concluded that employees could be compelled to arbitrate their individual PAGA claims, and when this occurred, their representative PAGA claims must be dismissed.
In Adolph, the California Supreme Court held that, under California law, PAGA’s statutory standing requirements did not divest employees of standing to pursue representative PAGA claims in court where their individual PAGA claims were subject to arbitration.
California’s high court did not address whether the FAA preempts this state-law rule, nor whether Viking River Cruises mandates the dismissal of representative PAGA claims as a matter of federal law under the same circumstances.
