Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) Amended To Address Some Excesses

On October 2, 2015, Governor Brown signed urgency legislation (Assembly Bill [AB] 1506) that immediately amends California's Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA)1 to address increasing civil litigation alleging technical violations of itemized wage statements (pay stubs) issued to employees. Labor Code sections 226(a)(6) and 226(a)(8) require an employer to provide its employees with wage statements containing the inclusive dates of the pay period and the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer. AB 1506 allows an employer 33 days to cure violations of these requirements before an employee may bring an action for civil penalties under PAGA. However, these violations will not be considered "cured" until the employer can show it has provided fully-compliant wage statements to each aggrieved employee for each pay period for the three-year period prior to the date of the aggrieved employee's letter to the Labor Workforce Development Agency (LWDA).

The Legislature's stated reason for requiring the amended statutes to take effect immediately (rather than the normal effective date of January 1 following a bill's passage) was "to incentivize prompt resolution of disputes over itemized wage statements under Part 13 (commencing with Section 2698) of Division 2 of the Labor...