Posted on June 30th, 2020
Please find below a complete transcript of this video.
What’s up fellow entrepreneurs?
It’s John Fagerholm again and today I want to talk about PAGA claims. But before we get into that, remember this video is informational only and you should speak about your specific problems with a qualified professional.
All right, so let’s get into this PAGA scam. PAGA is an acronym for Private Attorney General Act, and it essentially gives attorneys the ability to sue companies on behalf of the public. Yes, you heard that correctly.
One employee’s harm can now be turned into a multi-party claim without any evidence that there is harm to any other employees.
What this does is it essentially turns what would normally be an individual claim into something similar to a class action, but without the protections of the class certification process.
Once again, this is a terrible California law that has done nothing but force employers to either go out of business or settle claims.
Now, whether those claims are true or false for a dollar amount, considerably higher than the value of what the individual claim would have been.
Out of the proceeds of a PAGA claim, the state of California, believe it or not, received 75% of the award or settlement and the aggrieved employees divide the remaining 25%. And at the end of the day, of course, the attorneys are awarded attorney’s fees along with whatever percentage they have negotiated of the award or settlement.
It’s estimated that the state of California collected $88 million in PAGA penalties in 2019. That’s right. You heard that correctly. 88 million. Based on the revenues generated by this horrible legislation, I wouldn’t expect California to want to make any changes anytime soon, but unfortunately that’s not all.
Recently the California Supreme Court has now ruled that an employee that has settled his underlying claims can now go back and still file a PAGA claim.
Yes, you heard me correctly. You can settle a complaint with an employee and now potentially have that same employee come back around for more under this new PAGA ruling.
What once was a finality to an employment claim is now only a finale to the individual claim, as the backdoor has now been left open for the thieves to come back for seconds.
- Is it just me or is this insanity/creed unsustainable?
- What’s California’s goal here, you ask?
I don’t know, but the result is driving businesses out of California.
- Is California leadership just so blinded by greed that they can’t see the record number of businesses fleeing to Texas and Nevada?
To paraphrase a Tony Robbins quote in his book, MONEY Master the Game, “I was born and raised in California, but I left when I realized I was no longer welcome here anymore.”
All right, fellow entrepreneurs, that’s my rant for the day.
Until next time, be productive.
