Barbosa v. Impco Technologies, Inc.
Filed November 30, 2009, Fourth District, Div. Three
Cite as 2009 SOS 6899

Public Policy Protects Employee from False Overtime Claims

Manuel Barbosa started working at IMPCO Technologies, Inc. (IMPCO) as a carburetor assembler. When he was terminated, he was already a cell leader supervising up to eight carburetor assemblers.

Barbosa was terminated for falsely claiming overtime pay. The incident began when some of Barbosa’s employees came up to him for allegedly losing overtime pay. Believing that he also missed overtime pay, Barbosa spoke to his supervisor, Jaime DeSantos (DeSantos). DeSantos approved the missing hours only because he trusted Barbosa.

Upon verification with the company’s time clock, the payroll administrator informed DeSantos that Barbosa and others could not have worked overtime. Moreover, one employee returned the extra hour saying she did not work overtime.

Barbosa offered to return the money but the payroll administrator refused. Consequently, Barbosa was terminated. He was the only one terminated among those who claimed for overtime pay.

Consequently, Barbosa filed a case for wrongful termination. IMPCO moved for nonsuit. The trial court which initially denied the nonsuit eventually granted the same. It ruled that there was no public policy protecting a mistaken but good faith claim to overtime wages.

The California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate Distrcit reversed the trial court’s judgment and remanded the case for jury determination on Barbosa’s good faith and IMPCO’s reason for his termination.

The appeals court ruled that public policy in favor of an employer’s duty to pay overtime wages protects an employee from termination for making a good faith but mistaken claim to overtime.