Individual But Not Representative Claims Compelled To Arbitration

In-N-Out Burgers

Piplack v. In-N-Out Burgers, 88 Cal.App.5th 1281 (2023)

Former employees of In-N-Out Burgers, on their own behalf and on behalf of similarly aggrieved employees, brought an action against In-N-Out Burgers seeking civil penalties under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act for In-N-Out Burgers’s alleged practices of requiring employees, without reimbursement, to purchase and wear certain articles of clothing and to purchase and use special cleaning products to maintain the clothes. In reliance on Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, ––– U.S. ––––, 142 S.Ct. 1906 (2022), In-N-Out Burgers filed a motion to compel arbitration, arguing that Viking River requires plaintiffs’ individual PAGA claims to be arbitrated and all remaining representative claims dismissed for lack of standing. The trial court summarily denied In-N-Out Burgers’ motion to compel arbitration. In-N-Out Burgers appealed.

The Court of Appeal concluded that the arbitration agreements required individual PAGA claims to be arbitrated and that In-N-Out Burgers did not waive its right to compel arbitration through its litigation conduct. The Court of Appeal also held that Viking River’s requirement that the plaintiff’s individual claims under PAGA be compelled to arbitration did not necessarily deprive the plaintiff of standing to pursue representative claims as an aggrieved employee.

President Biden Signed Into Law the “Speak Out Act,” Curbing Use Of Non-Disclosure Agreements In Harassment Cases

Helping Employees Recover and Enforcing Employment Laws Helmer Friedman LLP.

President Biden signing the Speak Out Act.

On December 7, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Speak Out Act, which bans the use of pre-dispute non-disclosure and non-disparagement contract clauses involving sexual assault and sexual harassment. The new law renders unenforceable non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses related to allegations of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment that are entered into “before the dispute arises.” The new law does not prohibit the use of these agreements completely. The Speak Out Act exclusively prohibits and nullifies pre-dispute non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements and does not apply to post-dispute agreements. Accordingly, the act only applies to instances before a sexual harassment, or sexual assault dispute arises. The act also does not apply to trade secrets, proprietary information, or other types of employee complaints such as wage theft, age discrimination, or race discrimination.

2011 Southern California “Super Lawyers”

Helmer Friedman LLP is very pleased to announce that Law & Politics Magazine and the publishers of Los Angeles Magazine have selected Gregory D. Helmer and Andrew H. Friedman as 2011 Southern California “Super Lawyers” in the category of Labor and Employment Law.