Newly-Published Labor and Employment Cases

Contreras v. Super. Ct. (CA2/5 B307025 3/1/21) PAGA/Arbitration 

The issue of whether plaintiffs in a Private Attorneys General Act suit are “aggrieved employees” entitled to raise PAGA claims cannot be delegated to an arbitrator for decision.

https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B307025.PDF

Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC (SC S253677 2/25/21) Meal Periods/Rounding & Rebuttable Presumption 

Rounding of time is not permitted in the meal period context. Time records showing noncompliant meal periods create a rebuttable presumption of meal period violations.

https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S253677.PDF

Brown v. L.A. Unified School Dist. (CA2/8 B294240 2/18/21) FEHA/Failure to Accommodate & Retaliation 

Complaint sufficiently alleged failure to reasonably accommodate plaintiff’s disability when employer reneged on its offer to conduct a second evaluation of plaintiff’s disability after it rejected her chosen consultant. 

https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B294240.PDF

Crestwood Behavioral Health, Inc. v. Super. Ct.(CA1/5 A160523 2/17/21) PAGA/Venue 

Proper venue for an action filed under the Private Attorneys General Act includes not only the county where the representative plaintiff was employed and the county where the employer’s principal place of business is located, but also a county where the employer allegedly committed some of the Labor Code violations pled in the action. 

https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A160523.PDF

Clarke v. AMN Services (9th Cir. 19-55784 2/8/21) FLSA Overtime Pay 

Per diem benefits paid to clinicians who worked at facilities more than 50 miles from their home functioned as compensation for work rather than as reimbursement for expenses incurred. The benefits thus were improperly excluded from the clinicians’ regular rate of pay for purposes of calculating overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/02/08/19-55784.pdf