By L.M. Sixel
chron.com
January 7th, 2006
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ruled this week that more than 11,000 former and current assistant managers who work at Starbucks around the country can join a lawsuit filed in Houston seeking unpaid overtime wages.
Two Houston-area Starbucks employees filed the suit, claiming the chain required its assistant store managers to work "off the clock," said Daryl Sinkule, an employment lawyer with Shellist Lazarz in Houston.
They spend most of their time waiting on customers, making coffee and keeping the store tidy, Sinkule said. But he said the assistant store managers were told they wouldn't be paid for more than 40 hours a week although their jobs required them to regularly put in more time.
Since 2002, Starbucks has classified its assistant store managers as non-exempt employees, which makes them eligible for overtime pay, he said.
Starbucks issued a written statement saying it "intends to vigorously defend this case."
"Contrary to the plaintiff's allegations, Starbucks has a policy requiring that all non-exempt partners, including assistant store managers, be paid for all hours worked, and we believe that the policy is communicated and enforced consistently," the statement said.
Starbucks is facing a similar nationwide case in Florida involving store managers.
While the store managers in that case are classified as exempt from overtime, they contend they deserve it because they're "nothing more than glorified barristas," said Dan Levine, an employment lawyer representing the managers from the firm of Shapiro, Blasi, Wasserman & Gora in Boca Raton, Fla.
The company responded that it has properly classified them as exempt and is vigorously defending this case as well.
The Houston case was filed by James Falcon. A second assistant manager, Patricia Johnson, later was added.
Falcon was an assistant store manager who worked about 50 hours a week at various Starbucks around Houston, according to the lawsuit filed in March.
It alleged that while assistant managers are eligible for overtime, the district manager "made it clear" to Falcon that he would face "repercussions" if he claimed overtime. However, Falcon couldn't get all his work done in 40 hours, and the lawsuit said the district manager knew he regularly worked extra hours each week that weren't recorded, according to the lawsuit.
He was also required to pitch in without compensation at catering functions when his store was short of help or an employee called in sick, according to the suit.
Johnson worked at three different Starbucks in Houston, Sinkule said. She put in about 50 hours a week, but was paid for 40, he said.
Assistant store managers will not be automatically included in the lawsuit.
To participate, current and former employees who worked for the giant coffee chain since Jan. 3, 2003, will receive a notice from the court and must submit a consent form to the Shellist Lazarz law firm.
Sinkule said that in a typical overtime case, 30 to 40 percent of employees "opt in."
But Levine, who is handling the other Starbucks case in Florida, said that may be too high of an estimate. In his case, 900 of the 7,500 Starbucks managers who were asked to join signed on.
