Law360 interviewed Manatt's Andrew Satenberg, a partner in the firm's Employment and Labor practice, for an article on the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to disturb the California Supreme Court's CLS Transportation decision, holding that workers' state Private Attorneys General Act claims can't be waived in employment arbitration deals.
Law360 reports that the high court declined to hear CLS Transportation Los Angeles LLC's challenge to the California Supreme Court's June ruling—which found employment arbitration agreements with class waivers are generally enforceable but agreed with former CLS limo driver Arshavir Iskanian that representative claims under PAGA couldn't be waived because it ran counter to public policy. The holding is likely to trigger more of these representative claims and push employers to seek removal of the fights to federal court
Although California federal courts appear to be a more receptive forum for employers to file a motion to compel arbitration of a PAGA claim than state courts, employers would likely only be able to remove class actions that include a PAGA tag-along claim rather than cases that only involve PAGA claims in light of a Ninth Circuit decision, said Satenberg.
Read the article here.