Sierra Pacific Industries Wage and Hour Cases

I. BACKGROUND

Sierra Pacific manufactures lumber and operates wood processing facilities throughout California. McDonald worked as an hourly, nonexempt crew member at a Sierra Pacific sawmill from June 2015 through September 2018. Many of Sierra Pacific’s nonexempt employees had signed arbitration agreements. There are two forms of agreement: one dated 2016, and another dated 2022. Both agreements preclude class actions and require arbitration of all disputes arising out of the employment relationship.1 Neither McDonald nor any of the other named plaintiffs signed an arbitration agreement.

1 The 2016 agreement excludes representative actions under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) (Lab. Code, § 2698 et seq.).

2 A. Pleadings McDonald filed a class action complaint against Sierra Pacific on October 19, 2018. The complaint alleges eight causes of action for wage and hour violations, and a related cause of action for violations of the unfair competition law, on behalf of eight putative classes of present and former employees. (Lab. Code, §§ 201-204, 221-223, 226, 226.7, 510, 512, 516, 558, 1182.12, 1194, 1194.2, 1197, 2802, 2804; Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et…