Location: SC
I work in an event department. We had a large company special order cases of wine for their event that were prepaid. When they pay for special wine upfront, the wine is theirs to take home.
After the event, we had all of the leftover wine in a room for them to pickup. The company took the wine that they wanted. The host came up to myself and the closing manager and stated they had taken all they wanted, and she was gifting the rest of the wine to the staff- about 6 cases worth. Most of the staff that had worked had already left. My manager said to leave all the wine in our storage area for our GM to divide up in the morning.
When I came in today, I asked if we were going to be able to take the wine home today. Where I work, management has to give written approval for items like that to be taken off property as proof the employee isn’t stealing. HR would not give approval for us to take the wine. They made the call to put it back in inventory, even though it’s already been paid for and sell it a second time.
-
This feels like stealing. The host expressly said it was a gift for the staff. To me, it’s the equivalent of them tipping us and the company deciding to keep it for themselves. Is any part of them not letting us keep the gift illegal?
-
They already made their money off it once. Is it legal to take back inventory already paid for and sell it again?
-
HR was the one who made the call, so I’m not sure who to go from here if it is wrong what they did.
I’m not even a huge wine drinker, to be honest. For me, it’s more about the principle of taking something away that is intended as a gift for your staff and then turning around and selling it for a profit- when you’ve already profited off it to begin with at that. It’s left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.