LAW & POLICY NOTE (July 2022) [ARCHIVED]
The U.S. Supreme Court June 2022 decision in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) does not preempt a rule of California law that invalidates contractual waivers of the right to assert representative claims under the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) in any forum. However, in a portion of the majority opinion that four justices refused to join, the Court created confusion about whether plaintiffs subject to arbitration lose standing under state law to maintain representative PAGA claims in court. We explain why the majority’s view of PAGA standing in Viking River Cruises clashes with the California Supreme Court’s authoritative approach to PAGA standing, announced two years ago in Kim v. Reins International California, Inc. We conclude that California courts are not bound by the portion of Viking River Cruises that posits the loss of representative standing to litigate PAGA claims on behalf of other employees, and instead must follow Kim.
LAW & POLICY NOTE (June 2022) [ARCHIVED]
California’s Assembly Bill (A.B.) 257, the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery (FAST Recovery) Act, creates a partnership between fast food restaurant workers, their advocates, businesses, and state agency officials through a Fast Food Sector Council empowered to set labor standards specific to the industry. Regardless of whether the bill is signed into law, A.B. 257 will remain a consequential piece of legislation that serves as a template for improving labor standards in the fast food sector and in other low-wage industries. Analyzing the bill in print as of June 9, 2022, we propose model language that ensures the labor standards developed by the council cannot fall below existing state standards applicable to fast food workers and are fully enforceable under the Labor Code, and that strengthen the franchisor liability provisions of the bill.
On March 11, 2022, Amazon announced a new policy on freedom of association under international standards. Citing International Labor Organization and United Nations principles, Amazon pledged to comply with global norms on union organizing and collective bargaining, even when national labor law reflects a “gap in governance” with international standards. Published by the UC Berkeley Labor Center and CLAW, this report finds that Amazon’s freedom of association policy, on its face, is non-compliant with international labor standards, and Amazon management’s conduct before and after issuing the policy continues to violate international standards.