Love, Labor, and Wage and Hour Laws

Wine production is a labor of love, and as one California winery learned this past summer, the labor is just as important as the love. Westover Winery in Castro Valley was fined $115,000 for using volunteer workers, a practice that is said to be common throughout the region. The state Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) cited Westover’s failure to pay minimum wage, provide wage statements, and pay workers' compensation insurance as grounds for the fines. For an industry that is often driven as much by passion as by profit, this is a sobering reminder that wage and hour laws still apply.

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