PAGA Cause of Action
A PAGA Cause of action is an aggrieved employee filing a lawsuit under the Private Attorney General Act. All claims under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA), Lab. Code, § 2698 et seq., are representative actions in the sense that they are brought on the state’s behalf. The employee acts as the proxy or agent of the state’s labor law enforcement agencies and represents the same legal right and interest as those agencies — namely, recovery of civil penalties that otherwise would have been assessed and collected by the Labor Workforce Development Agency. The employee may therefore seek any civil penalties the state can, including penalties for violations involving employees other than the PAGA litigant herself.
The cause(s) of action (“COA”) under PAGA is/are those COA that the aggrieved employee has on an individual capacity. For example, a PAGA claim would include these causes of action:
- COA: Unpaid Overtime – Employee’s damages
- COA PAGA Penalties – Employee’s damages $XXX
- COA PAGA Penalties – Employee’s damages $XXX
- COA: Missed Meal Periods – Employee’s damages $XXX
- COA PAGA Penalties – $YYY
- COA PAGA Penalties – $YYY
- COA: Failure to Pay Minimum Wage – Employee’s damages $XXX
- COA PAGA Penalties – $YYY
- COA Statury Penalties for Failure to Keep Complete Payroll Record
- COA PAGA Penalties – $YYY
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Does the Aggrieve Employees Need Standing for All PAGA Penalties?
No. “So long as a plaintiff was affected by at least one of the Labor Code violations alleged in the complaint, he can recover penalties for all the violations he proves. By the plain language of the statute, an aggrieved employee need only suffer one of the Labor Code violations alleged against his or her employer to be able to bring a Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claim on behalf of employees who suffered any Labor Code violation at the hands of the employer. The plaintiff need not have actually suffered all of the Labor Code violations she alleges to have taken place for purposes of seeking PAGA penalties. Because in a PAGA case, the plaintiff is standing in for the state, it would be arbitrary to limit the plaintiff’s pursuit of penalties to only those Labor Code violations that affected him or her personally.” Magadia v. Wal-Mart Assocs., 384 F. Supp. 3d 1058