California Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Filed by PPG Industries Employee

A man is filing a California wrongful termination lawsuit against his employer claiming that they violated both the California Labor Code and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Plaintiff Wally L., of Tustin, Calif., says he was a Territory Manager for PPG Industries. His job was to merchandise the architectural paint products made by PPG Industries that were sold in Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores.

In his California wrongful termination lawsuit, Wally claims that not only did PPG Industries require him to work long hours off-the-clock without overtime pay, but also that he was illegally fired by them. In addition to these harms suffered by Wally, he alleges that PPG Industries instructed him to willfully “mistint” paint colors, thereby stealing from PPG Industries customers.

Wally, according to this California wrongful termination lawsuit, was instructed by his Regional Manager (his direct superior) to intentionally provide the wrong tint for many gallons of PPG Industries RescueIt paint at Lowe’s stores.

The RescueIt paint begins at a neutral color and then it is tinted to suit the preference of a customer. If a gallon of paint is accidentally tinted the wrong color, it must go on a clearance shelf and be resold.

If a gallon of RescueIt is on a Lowe’s shelf without being tinted for a customer, Lowe’s can demand that it be purchased back by PPG industries. But, according to this California wrongful termination lawsuit, if it is mistinted and lands on a clearance shelf, it does not have to be bought back by PPG Industries. At that point, it is considered “sold” to Lowes.

Because that mistinted paint can only be sold for pennies on the dollar, Lowes takes a deep hit on all PPG Industries mistinted paint, according to the California wrongful termination lawsuit.

Wally claims that when his Regional Manager told him to intentionally mistint the RescueIt paint, the product was not selling well and PPG Industries knew it would probably have to buy back a lot of RescueIt product.

According to this California wrongful termination lawsuit, his superior told him this mistinting should be done on the “down-low.” Wally claims that his manager “suggested that they offer to cover the paint desk for Lowe’s associates when they went on lunch or break, and to use that time to
surreptitiously mistint paint.”

When Wally refuse to do this as instructed, he says, he called PPG Industries ethics hotline and reported what he was being asked to do.

He alleges that after this time, his Regional Manager began scoring his reviews with failing scores. After this, he was fired on Sept. 6, 2017.

The RM said that Wally “falsified his training records to make it appear that he was doing more work than he actually was,” according to the California wrongful termination lawsuit. Wally contends that this justification was just to support Wally’s termination.

When Wally was terminated, he claims, an HR representative was on the phone. Wally believes that he should have been protected as a whistleblower, but instead was fired. The HR representative allegedly said that he did not want to hear about this and got off of the phone.

While he was employed with PPG Industries, he was a non-exempt employee. However, his job required him to work 50 to 55 hours per week. PPG Industries had a policy where TMs were paid for 40 regular hours and 5 overtime hours per week.

He was encouraged by his employer to make sure all his tasks were done regardless of how long it took. He claims he was never paid for the extra hours he was expected to work.

This California Wrongful Termination Lawsuit is Case No. 8:18-cv-00705 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

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