Michael S. Kun, a member of the firm's Labor and Employment practice in the Los Angeles office, is interviewed in a National Law Journal article on a recent California labor law allowance, dubbed the "bounty hunter" or "sue your boss" law, that enables single employees to sue on behalf of all workers and recover state labor penalties.
The article notes that since California's 2004 Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) lets an employee's representative action enforce California labor law as a private attorney general, employees can recover state labor penalties without needing to qualify as a class action.
Kun said that while PAGA's initial allowance of mechanical applications of penalties with no chance to cure the violations was quickly changed to make these lawsuits less attractive, now Arias v. Superior Court of San Joaquin County may once again alter that trend. "The fact that they do not need to go through the sometimes onerous class action procedures ... may make PAGA claims enticing to employees and their counsel once again," Kun said.
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