Employer Association Files Suit to Declare PAGA Unconstitutional

On November 28, 2018, the California Business & Industrial Alliance, an association representing California-based employers, filed a 54-page Complaint in the Orange County Superior Court seeking injunctive and declaratory relief against Attorney General Xavier Becerra and alleging that that the California Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”) is unconstitutional. The Complaint set forth nine causes of action, identifies what it believes are “the 30 most aggressive PAGA plaintiffs’ law firms,” and asserts, among other things, “the Legislature’s unfettered grant of authority to the Plaintiffs’ Bar to exercise State power through PAGA, without any oversight or coordination, has resulted in the Plaintiffs’ Bar targeting charities, non-profits, and other employers who provide valuable and charitable services to California residents.”