PAGA Employment Claims Legislative Update: Key Reforms, Standing, Penalties, Arbitration, Cure Provisions

PAGA authorizes current and former employees who claim to have experienced Labor Code violations to act as private attorneys general and to recover civil penalties on behalf of the state of California, themselves, and other current and former employees. For years, this has resulted in a steady stream of representative PAGA lawsuits each year, with hundreds of millions of dollars in potential penalties at stake.

On July 1, 2024, two bills significantly reforming PAGA were signed into law that affect PAGA claims filed on or after June 19, 2024, and include, among other changes, more stringent standing requirements, expanded employer cure provisions, and limits on PAGA penalties in certain situations. Counsel must be aware of the impact these new laws have had on PAGA actions and how the courts have been enforcing this legislation over the past year. 

Counsel should also understand potential significant civil penalty exposure arising from PAGA claims as well as expanded opportunities to "cure" certain violations, PAGA's administrative exhaustion and more stringent standing requirements, and how to undertake discovery in potentially sprawling actions.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses PAGA and the impact recent legislative reform will have on employers and employees. The panel will address the elements of establishing a claim and offer best practices for employers to mitigate risk and exposure to PAGA lawsuits.

I. Representative lawsuits under PAGA

A. Nature of PAGA

B. Pre-filing requirements

C. Potential PAGA plaintiffs and defendants

II. Recent legislative reforms to PAGA

III. Litigating PAGA actions

A. Effect of prior arbitration and settlement agreements

B. Scope of representative claims and manageability of PAGA actions

C. Discovery and other procedural issues in PAGA litigation

D. Potential damages

IV. Resolving PAGA claims

A. Evaluating potential liability/recovery

B. Unique settlement procedures

V. Impact of legislative reform on PAGA actions: key cases and lessons learned

VI. Practitioner takeaways

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• Recent PAGA changes and the impact on counsel for employees and employers
• Unique pre-lawsuit exhaustion requirements for employees and cure procedures for employers
• Employee standing and the scope of their representative capacity
• The effect of arbitration and settlement agreements
• Common PAGA claims and litigation issues
• Evaluating penalty exposure and successfully resolving PAGA claims