Court Summarizes Fractured Opinion About Gentry Rivera v. Hilton Worldwide, Inc., Case No. G047644 (4th Dist. Div. 3 Nov. 26, 2013) (unpublished) is one more wage and hour case in which the employee is ordered to arbitrate individual claims and the Court upholds dismissal of class claims without prejudice. The Court finds that […]
PAGA Claims Are Representative, Not Individual Claims, Fourth District, Division 3 Explains Here, the arbitration agreement required plaintiff to arbitrate “claims for wages or other compensation due or penalties . . . [and] violation of statute.” But she could not be compelled to litigate her California Private Attorney General Act claim as an individual, […]
Employee Here Did Not Clearly And Unmistakably Waive Right To A Judicial Forum Certain distinctions are importantly at play in Volpei v. County of Ventura, Case No. B243954 (2nd Dist. Div. 6 Nov. 7, 2013) (Gilbert, P.J., author 3:0): statutory versus contractual rights, mandatory versus voluntary arbitration, unilateral versus bilateral right to initiate arbitration, […]
SCOTUS Ruling In Concepcion Causes California Supreme Court To Change Its Position On Waiver of Berman Hearing So what is a Berman hearing? It is a dispute resolution forum established by the Legislature to assist employees in recovering wages owed. Labor Code section 98. The procedure is named after legislator Howard Berman, who instituted […]
Collective Bargaining Agreement Must Clearly and Unmistakably Refer Statutory Discrimination Claims to Arbitration in Order Make Arbitration Mandatory Defendant Mid-Wilshire Health Care Center appealed from an order denying its motion to compel arbitration and to stay a wrongful termination action filed by plaintiff Mendez, a nurse assistant. After determining the provisions of a collective […]
PAGA Claims Are Outside the Principles of the FAA and the Supreme Court Decisions Applying It The Private Attorney General Act of 2004 (PAGA), Labor Code sections 2698 through 2699.5, authorizes actions by aggrieved employees on their own behalf and on behalf of other employees to recover civil penalties from employers for Labor Code […]
The Court Of Appeal Also Directs Entry Of Order Granting Employer’s Petition To compel Arbitration On An Individual Basis Employee Arroyo’s complaint alleged his employer engaged in wage and hour practices that violated the California Labor Code. The trial court denied the employer’s petition to compel arbitration, but this denial was reversed on appeal […]
Failure To Attach AAA Rules And Employer’s Unilateral Ability to Modify the Arbitration Agreement Were the Issues Here Plaintiff Peng sued her employer for employment discrimination and related claims. After the trial court denied defendant’s motion to compel arbitration, the employer appealed. On appeal, the issues were whether the employer’s failure to attach […]
Before Certification of Class, Court Lacked Personal Jurisdiction Over Putative Class Members Who Signed Arbitration Agreement Prospective lead plaintiff Nguyen filed putative class action complaint for alleged wage and hour violations against his former employer Inter-Coast International Training, Inc. Of the 220 individuals in the putative class, only 59 had signed an arbitration agreement […]
But Trial Court Was Correct That Class Arbitration Cannot Be “Inferred” From Silence On The Issue The trial court judge denied Tenet Health Care Corporation’s motion to compel arbitration of a wage-and-hour lawsuit brought by a hospital nurse. Tenet appealed and obtained a reversal. McElroy v. Tenet Health Care Corporation, G047300 (4th Dist. […]