On May 23, 2018, the California Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District in Huff v. Securitas Security Services USA, Inc. held that the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) allows “an ‘aggrieved employee’ ––a person affected by at least one Labor Code violation committed by an employer––to pursue penalties for all the Labor Code violations committed by that employer.”

In Huff, Plaintiff was a security guard who sued his employer on his behalf and on behalf of other employees under PAGA for “numerous Labor Code violations” including failure to immediately pay wages upon termination of employment; failure to pay temporary service workers wages weekly; failure to pay wages within 72 hours of resignation; and failure to pay all wages due for work performed in a pay period. Huff was not a temporary services employee and thus, in the first phase of a bifurcated trial, the trial court granted Securitas’ motion for judgment on the grounds that Huff was not affected by Securitas’ violation of the obligation to pay temporary service workers wages weekly and, therefore, had no standing to seek PAGA remedies for others affected by the
violation.

Huff moved for a new trial and the Court granted the motion since it believed it made an error in law by precluding Huff from seeking remedies for other employees even though he had not been affected by the violation. The trial concluded Huff could pursue the representative PAGA action even if he was not directly affected by a violation so long as he was affected by at least one Labor Code violation.

Securitas appealed from the order granting Huff a new trial and the Appellate Court affirmed the new trial order. So long as an employee is affected by one violation of the Labor Code by his or her employer, that employee can maintain a PAGA action to redress other employer Labor Code violations even if those violations do not affect the employee who brought the action.

Now, more than ever, employers must strictly comply with the minute details of the California Labor Code. Constant scrutiny should be given to all employer labor practices and we recommend that employers consult legal counsel to make sure they proactively address all human resource, payroll and employee rights issues.

The information presented is not intended to be, and does not constitute, “legal advice.” Because each situation varies, and only brief summary information is provided here, you should not use this information as a basis for action unless you have independently verified with your own counsel that it applies to your particular situation.

The California Chamber of Commerce has provided an analysis of the most common ways employers end up in litigation. They found these ten acts that many employers do, draw employee lawsuits and employer liability:

• Classifying all employees as exempt, whether they are or not;
• Being nice to employees – letting them take lunch whenever they want;
• Making everyone independent contractors because having employees is too much trouble;
• Letting employees decide which hours and how many hours they want to work each day;
• Terminating any employee who takes a leave of absence, whatever the reason, because it is too much trouble to administer leaves of absence and the employer does not know if the employee will return;
• Refusing to give former employees their final check until they return company property;
• Providing loans to employees and deducting the money from the employees’ paychecks each pay period or from their final paycheck;
• Using non-compete agreements to protect confidential information, such as business secrets, customer lists and pricing information, that prevent employees from working for the competition; and
• Implementing a “use it or lose it” vacation policy and refusing to pay out all that money upon employment termination.

The listed conduct is prohibited by Federal and State laws. There are statutorily prescribed ways employers must treat and pay workers. If you fail to follow them you too could become the “Defendant.” Before you decide how to handle your employee situations get some good, solid legal advice so you don’t end up on the Court Docket.

Contact your legal counsel in order to help prevent you from making mistakes that could spell disaster.

The information presented is not intended to be, and does not constitute, “legal advice.” Because each situation varies, and only brief summary information is provided here, you should not use this information as a basis for action unless you have independently verified with your own counsel that it applies to your particular situation.