A representative action lawsuit under California's controversial Private Attorneys General Act has taken aim at Comcast, accusing the company of allegedly shorting worker pay, denying them full rest breaks and other alleged violations of California labor law.
The lawsuit was filed Jan. 29 in San Francisco County Superior Court by attorneys Norman B. Blumenthal, Kyle R. Nordrehaug, Aparajit Bhowmik, Nicholas J. De Blouw, and Jeffrey S. Herman, from Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, of La Jolla. It was filed on behalf of named plaintiff Arrio Che.
Che, in turn, is seeking to represent all other workers at Comcast, under the state's PAGA law. The law empowers individual workers to file suit against their employers, standing in place of California state labor officials, to press claims of violations of state labor laws.
According to the lawsuit, Che was employed by Comcast from February 2017 to August 2023. He alleges that he and other aggrieved employees were not provided with legally required meal and rest periods or paid minimum and overtime wages for all time worked.
The lawsuit seeks to recover PAGA civil penalties on behalf of all current and former aggrieved employees that worked for Comcast. It does not seek to recover any other damages.
The PAGA law has met criticism from many in the business community and elsewhere for allegedly making employers pay large civil penalties, generating big fees for attorneys and large penalties for the state, but little return for the employees allegedly harmed by the alleged labor law violations.