The NRLA Doesn't Make PAGA Claims Arbitrable

Olson v. Lyft, No. A156322 (D1d2 Oct. 29, 2020)

In Iskanian v. CLS Transp. L.A., LLC, 59 Cal.4th 348 (2014), the California Supreme Court held that PAGA claims are not arbitrable. Employer here acknowledges that rule, but argues that Iskanian was implicitly overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in Epic Sys. Corp.v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018). Epic held that § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act—which guarantees certain employee rights to collective action—was not in conflict with the FAA and thus that employment claims are generally arbitrable. But that doesn’t undermine Iskanian. Iskanian is not premised on labor law, but on the fact that the State, which never agreed to arbitrate, is technically the plaintiff in a PAGA case. The Court of Appeal already made that point in Correia v. NB Baker Elec., Inc., 32 Cal. App. 5th 602 (2019), and the Court here sees no good reason to decide otherwise.

Affirmed.