Perez v. U-Haul: PAGA Claims Cannot Be Separated Into “Arbitrable” and “Inarbitrable” Components

The 2nd District Court of Appeal recently affirmed a ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jane Johnson in Perez v. U-Haul Co. of California, denying the defendant company’s move to compel its workers to arbitrate their representative Private Attorney General Act claims for wage-and-hour violations. Perez, No. B262029 (2nd Dist. Div. 7 Sept. 16, 2016) (slip op. available here). Following the California Supreme Court’s decision in Iskanian v. CLS Transp. Los Angeles, LLC, 59 Cal. 4th 348 (2014), the three-judge appellate panel rejected U-Haul’s argument that it could force employees first to arbitrate whether they have individual standing to bring a PAGA claim.

While the California Supreme Court in the prominent Iskanian decision upheld the enforceability of class action waivers, it held that waiver of PAGA claims through a similar “representative action” waiver is unenforceable. In Perez, U-Haul attempted to circumvent this distinction by arguing that the issue of whether the plaintiffs were “aggrieved employees” as defined by the PAGA statute was a severable “threshold question” that should proceed to arbitration first, to determine standing. The appellate court disagreed, stating that “[g]iven that the parties did not agree to arbitrate representative claims, and that a PAGA action is by definition a form of representative claim, we conclude that PAGA claims are categorically excluded from the arbitration agreement.” Slip op. at 11. U-Haul’s lawyers tried to convince the court that the defendant was not seeking to prevent the plaintiffs from pursuing their PAGA claims entirely, but rather that it simply wanted to enforce its arbitration agreements to determine the plaintiffs’ “underlying employment claims” which could ultimately render the PAGA claims moot. However, the Court of Appeal held that the arbitration agreement did not contain any language suggesting that the parties had agreed to arbitrate whether the plaintiff had standing to bring a representative claim in court. Id. The court also added that, even if the agreement did contain such a provision, it would be unenforceable under California law since there is no authority supporting that a PAGA action can be split into individual “underlying claims” brought in arbitration and separate “representative” claims brought in court. Id. at 11-14.

PAGA is a vital enforcement mechanism for employees in California who work for companies that have implemented arbitration agreements banning class actions. Perez is another in the growing line of cases that shut down employers’ attempts at implementing arbitration agreements that seek to impede employees’ ability to bring PAGA claims.

Authored By:
Rebecca Labat, Partner
CAPSTONE LAW APC