Please stay home: PAGA swallows paid sick leave

In 2003, California passed the Private Attorneys’ General Act (PAGA), which allows employees to file claims as a ‘proxy’ for the state to collect civil penalties. The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (HWHFA) entitles employees to paid sick leave in California but doesn’t allow them to enforce their rights through a private action. Rather, only the state of California is permitted to file a lawsuit to enforce the Act. The combination of PAGA and HWHFA, however, may afford employees another avenue to collect civil penalties against an employer.

Anything you can do, I can do better

Kaiser employed Ana Wood as a nonexempt employee, paying her hourly wages during her employment. In February 2021, she filed a lawsuit under PAGA against Kaiser.

In her lawsuit, Wood claimed Kaiser violated California’s HWHFA by not paying sick leave at “the correct rate,” wrongfully denied employees the right to use sick leave, and violated labor code provisions regarding vacation pay.

Wood alleged her lawsuit could appropriately proceed under PAGA because she was an “aggrieved employee” who was “properly suited” to file a PAGA complaint. To that end, she argued she was in the proper position to file the lawsuit, serve as the representative employee, and collect civil penalties for all PAGA violations Kaiser allegedly committed against other aggrieved employees in connection with sick leave, sick leave pay, and vacation pay.