Pegastaff

PegaStaff is an agency that provides temporary staffing for its clients. A large part of PegaStaff’s business was the provision of staffing to Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), through a staffing agency with which PG&E directly contracted, initially Corestaff Services, LP (Corestaff), and later Agile 1.

The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC or commission) adopted general order 156 (GO 156) to implement Public Utilities Code sections 8281 through 8286 (Article 5), the purpose of which is to encourage and develop the use of women-, minority-, and disabled veteran-owned business enterprises (minority enterprises) within the public utility sector. PegaStaff is not a minority enterprise, and after PG&E adopted a program to increase the utilization of minority enterprises, PegaStaff’s provision of labor to PG&E was substantially reduced. PegaStaff attributes this reduction to the implementation of a tier system preferential to minority enterprises and the transfer of many of its contingent workers to minority enterprises.

PegaStaff filed suit against the PUC, PG&E, Corestaff and Agile 1. Its claims against the PUC consisted of constitutional challenges to…