Charter Fails to Make Worker Arbitrate PAGA Claims on Appeal

Charter Communications LLC lost its bid to convince the Ninth Circuit to overturn a lower court ruling allowing a former salesperson to litigate some wage claims instead of arbitrating them.

The broadband company’s arbitration agreement with the salesperson “expressly excludes preexisting litigation,” and the worker filed this suit more than two years before the agreement’s effective date, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion Tuesday.

• The salesperson seeks penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act, a law unique to California that allows workers to step into the state’s shoes to enforce wage statutes ...