Aaron Buckley Authors Bender’s California Labor & Employment Bulletin Article About California Court of Appeal Decision on Claims Under PAGA

Aaron Buckley, national vice chair of the Quarles & Brady Labor & Employment Practice Group, wrote an article for Bender’s California Labor & Employment Bulletin about a California Court of Appeal decision regarding whether an individual claim under the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) can be pursued separately from a representative claim. Buckley outlines how this will affect wage and hour disputes, using a specific court case as an example.

An excerpt:

A plaintiff must satisfy two requirements in order to have standing to litigate a PAGA claim: (1) the plaintiff must be an “aggrieved employee,” defined as someone who was employed by the alleged violator; and (2) the plaintiff must be a person “against whom one or more of the alleged [Labor Code] violations was committed.” ^{2 3}

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The California Court of Appeal began its analysis by reviewing PAGA’s general legal framework. ¹⁹ The court noted that “PAGA authorizes an ‘aggrieved employee,’ acting as a proxy or agent of the state Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), to bring a civil action against an employer ‘on behalf of himself or herself and other current or former employees’ to recover civil penalties for Labor Code violations they have sustained.” ²⁰

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