[author: Gail Jankowski]
Defendants appealed an order from a California federal district court that denied their motion to compel individual arbitration of a former employee’s representative claim under California’s Private Attorney General Act (PAGA). On appeal, the defendants argued that the plaintiff’s arbitration agreement, wherein she agreed to arbitrate all disputes regarding her employment on an individual basis, applied to her PAGA claim as well. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying defendants’ motion to compel arbitration. The panel reaffirmed the Iskanian rule, which holds that under California law, an employment agreement that compels the waiver of representative claims under the PAGA, is contrary to public policy and therefore unenforceable. Hernandez v. DMSI Staffing, LLC, Case No. 15-15366 (9th Cir. Feb. 16, 2017).
