Sykes

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

DEVONNEA SYKES, Case No. 20-cv-03616-VC

Plaintiff,

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND

v. DENYING IN PART MOTION FOR

SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND

F.D. THOMAS, INC., AN OREGON MOTION TO REMAND

CORPORATION, et al., Re: Dkt. Nos. 22, 24 Defendants.

The defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted on preemption grounds with respect to Sykes’s claims for overtime and meal-period violations. But that motion is denied for the claims related to rest periods, vacation pay, business expenses, and the minimum wage. Sykes’s motion to remand is granted for those latter four claims. As a preliminary matter, Sykes contends that because he only brought claims for penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), as opposed to bringing claims directly under the California Labor Code, there can be no complete preemption under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). Although his argument is difficult to decipher, Sykes appears to contend as follows: (1) when citizens bring PAGA claims, they effectively stand in the shoes of the state; (2) the state can enforce its own wage-and-hour…