Johnson v. Contemporary Services CA2/8

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In June 2010, Angela Johnson and Edwin Merino filed a class action against their employer, Contemporary Services Corporation, alleging numerous violations of the Labor Code related to wages, hours, meal periods, and rest breaks. Their complaint included a claim under PAGA, which allows employees to act as agents of the state in bringing both individual and representative actions to vindicate workers’ statutory rights. (Iskanian, supra, 59 Cal.4th at pp. 378-380.) When plaintiffs filed their complaint the law was in flux concerning the extent to which certain class action claims could be litigated in court when the parties had an arbitration agreement that was either silent on, or expressly barred, representative claims. The primary issue revolved around AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion (2011) 563 U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 1740, and whether under the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq.) state law was barred from requiring arbitration of class claims unless the parties had agreed to do so. Contemporary filed a petition to compel arbitration of plaintiffs’ individual claims only, pursuant to an arbitration provision in their standard employment…