California winery fined $115,000 for using volunteers; put out of business

[green73]

CASTRO VALLEY, CA — A small family winery has closed its doors after being fined $115,000 for allowing volunteers to help in the wine-making process.

“There’s just no money left; they’ve taken everything,” said Jim Smyth, one of the owners Westover Winery.

Unbeknown to the Smyth family — and many other California business owners — it is illegal in the state to use unpaid volunteers at a for-profit business.

Among the reasons cited by the California Department of Industrial Relations, was the fact that no income taxes were being collected on the volunteer labor.

The fines represent more than a decade’s worth of profits for the winery, which is open about 10 hours per week and nets about $11,000 a year, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The volunteers were comprised mainly of people interested in the wine-making process, and helped out in exchange for valuable experience.

“That’s what I wanted, to be as involved as much as possible — it was all about learning,” said Peter Goodwin, one of the illegal volunteers. “I don’t understand the state’s action. It was my time, and I volunteered.”

No warnings were issued for the offense before the enormous fine was issued.

This tragedy is the embodiment of the institutionalized injustice that persists everywhere the government imposes an income tax. Such a policy stakes a claim of state ownership on the time and labor of every individual. It effectively makes it illegal for a person to willingly exchange his time for money — or in California’s extreme case, no money.

People are hard pressed to claim their freedom when voluntarism is outlawed; when they are forbidden from voluntarily exchanging one commodity for another without a portion being confiscated.

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/w...or-volunteers/

[oyarde]

Ca cannot have any labor where they do not collect tax.

[aGameOfThrones]

The volunteers were comprised mainly of people interested in the wine-making process, and helped out in exchange for valuable experience

.


teacher and apprentice not welcome here.

[aGameOfThrones]

The volunteers were comprised mainly of people interested in the wine-making process, and helped out in exchange for valuable experience

.


teacher and apprentice not welcome here.

[puppetmaster]

People should just show up and work still. What a great story having police arrest volunteer workers....

[heavenlyboy34]

You mean the Constitution failed to protect people again? You don't say!

[Brian4Liberty]

Yet the media and politicians all use unpaid interns...

[Brian4Liberty]

[RJB]

Can't have apprentices who make half a salary, on-the-job-training, or volunteers to learn a craft. That's cruelty.

Instead, to be kind to the worker, make them pay and go into debt at an approved college then pay to work as slaves as interns-- under paying them is just wrong. Instead, make the workers pay.

That's how compassionate our government is

[Brian4Liberty]

If they were paying illegal immigrants $1/hour then there would have been no problems.

[green73]

If they were paying illegal immigrants $1/hour then there would have been no problems.

Ha!

[Anti Federalist]

“That’s what I wanted, to be as involved as much as possible — it was all about learning,” said Peter Goodwin, one of the illegal volunteers. “I don’t understand the state’s action. It was my time, and I volunteered.”

I'm sure you don't Pete, here, sit down and let me try to explain it to you:

First and foremost: You do not own you.

The state owns you, and all your property, and all your children and all your time and all your labor.

The state, bless its benevolence, allows you the privilege to rent all those things from it, during the course of your natural lifetime, plus about ten years after your death, depending on how much of the state's wealth you managed to accumulate to yourself over the course of those years.

You are, Pete, a slave, for all practical purposes.

Therefore the state has every right to dictate in which way you spend your time.

[PRB]

I'm posting this for every liberal who tells me raising wages doesn't hurt businesses or decrease employment.

[ClydeCoulter]

I sent an email expressing my displeasure with the CA Dept. of Industrial Relations (to the same). This just irked my gut! Links are at the end of the article.

[oyarde]

I sent an email expressing my displeasure with the CA Dept. of Industrial Relations (to the same). This just irked my gut! Links are at the end of the article.

I just quit buying anything from there , 17 yrs ago or so .

[56ktarget]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

[oyarde]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

There is no law needed. I am not working for nothing , but if anyone wants to , it is fine.

[ClydeCoulter]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

That's the problem, though, isn't it? All of these "meant to" laws that fail at justice and equity.

They were trading value of a type that is not, currently, taxable was the stated reason. It had nothing to do with fairness toward the volunteers, or any one else.

[SilentBull]

Don't they know their time and labor aren't theirs to volunteer?

[Danke]

[aGameOfThrones]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

[Lord Xar]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

WTF!! You can't be that ignorant, you just can't.

I would have GLADLY exchanged my services for valuable experience I put value on. IF I didn't not like the exchange, I LEAVE!!!! If I LIKE the exchange, I stay and use it to further my career, my hobby.. whatever.. How dare you presume to know what is right or wrong, or play the savior when all you have done is pollute the very nature of human exchange.

IN THE HEART OF EVERY LIBERAL, LIES A TYRANT.

[XNavyNuke]

A "feel good" news story from last year must have put the small vinyard on some Revenuer's radar.

My Town: Castro Valley: Westover Winery teaches all about its trade

October 2013

Now he's focused locally, seeking a few committed area wine enthusiasts who want to learn the intricacies of turning grapes into wine. His new vocational program, "Small Vineyard and Winery Operations, Growing and Winemaking," is designed to teach all aspects of winemaking from the vineyard to the tasting room -- for free. It's a labor of love and unlike anything Smyth has encountered before, he said.

"This is designed to get a group of people in and train them how to run a winery from start to finish," Smyth said. "It's half classroom work and half hands-on."

Here's a local story on the Winery's problems from August this year before it got more widely known.

Use of Volunteers at Wineries Is Illegal

At least one local winery has been hit with fines and penalties for using volunteers in its operation, raising concerns that other wineries may face similar action.

According to California labor laws, to volunteer legally, an individual must offer his or her services to a public agency or nonprofit organization. Businesses may not legally utilize volunteers. Government and nonprofits are exempt from the law.

In the Livermore Valley, volunteers work in winery tasting rooms and barrel rooms to support the local wineries and, in some cases, to learn the art of wine making.

XNN

[Anti Federalist]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

And in this case, that is obviously not what is happening, so how do you justify, in your tiny mind, this winery being fined $115,000 and put out of business?

[otherone]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

[Wooden Indian]

Exactly. How and why that goofball is still invited on this forum is pretty amazing. I would have fired him from an e-cannon a longtime ago.

[PRB]

These laws are meant to prevent companies from colluding together and getting unpaid labor. Try again Paulites.

there is no right in the Constitution that protects you from being $#@!ed by employers, NONE. You have no right to be employed or paid a living wage, you take it or leave, nobody can force you to take any job, at any pay.

[PRB]

There is no law needed. I am not working for nothing , but if anyone wants to , it is fine.

yeah, so if a child is too ignorant to know his rights and was convinced he doesn't need bathroom or lunch breaks, that's his problem.

[Brian4Liberty]

A "feel good" news story from last year must have put the small vinyard on some Revenuer's radar.

My Town: Castro Valley: Westover Winery teaches all about its trade

You know something had to put them on the radar of the petty tyrants.

Instruction runs the gamut from vineyard planting and pruning through processing, fermentation, cellaring, filtering, barreling and bottling. Quality-control, problem-solving, legal issues, labeling, wine sales and tasting room operations are also covered. Students come to the winery periodically, spend a portion of the day receiving instruction and studying concepts, then practice hands-on techniques.

Seems like they all have had a lesson about legal issues.

[RJB]

WTF!! You can't be that ignorant, you just can't.

Uh, yes he can.

This is actually one of his more intelligent posts.