primitives disillusioned with their star coffeehaus

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3040289

This is old news, but the primitives as usual are behind on the news.

Kadie  (1000+ posts)       Thu Mar-20-08 10:07 PM
Original message
 
Starbucks told to pay $100 million for giving baristas' tips to bosses

(03-20) 17:36 PDT SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego judge ordered Starbucks to pour more than $100 million into the accounts of its low-wage coffee-servers in California today after ruling that the company had improperly required the workers to share tips with their bosses.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett ruled Feb. 28 that Starbucks' shift supervisors were managers in the company, and therefore ineligible to be paid out of the tip jar. Today she assessed the damages: $86.7 million, plus 7 percent annual interest, for all servers - known as baristas - who have worked at any of the chain's 1,400 California stores since Oct. 8, 2000.

Plaintiffs' lawyers said the grand total was $105.8 million. They can seek additional amounts in attorneys' fees.

Cowett also said she would issue an injunction prohibiting Starbucks from allowing shift supervisors to share in the tip pool, the company's practice until now.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/0...

Seeing as how Starbucks is a politically-correct business, as compared with, say, Folger's or Butternut, one thinks the primitives would be trying to hide this story, rather than show it.

derby378  (1000+ posts)       Thu Mar-20-08 10:13 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
5. I've come to realize...

...that cool company" doesn't charge you $1.50 for a plastic bottle of water and then tell you that a tiny fraction of that purchase will go to make sure people have clean drinking water worldwide

This is why I try to carry a Sigg bottle wherever I go now. Just point me towards a clean water fountain and y'all can keep your fancy bottled H2O.

I dunno.

Ben & Jerry's ice cream probably works the same way.

Elspeth  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 01:42 AM
Response to Original message
 
11. Shift supervisors, if they're good, are working--covering the counter during busy times and making lattes when the lines get too long. They deal with customer complaints and keep the schedules. They are hardly "management" in the corporate sense of the word. I don't mind them getting a tip as well.

HopeLives (1000+ posts)       Fri Mar-21-08 07:24 AM
Response to Reply #11

15. Agreed. I've rarely been in my local Starbucks when everyone wasn't working either making drinks, working the register, grinding coffee, replacing cream/milk, sweeping floors etc. If one of those people is a supervisor s/he is doing everything a front line employee is doing.

LostinVA  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 09:59 AM
Response to Reply #11

17. Without shift supervisors getting tips, the regular workers will now make more than them

I'd rather have less responsibility for more pay, personally.

And, Starbucks shift supervisors AREN'T managers.

kineta  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 01:43 AM
Response to Original message

12. I wonder what the shift managers are paid, and whether they also pull espresso.

mondo joe  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 10:19 AM
Response to Reply #12

20. Me too. My guess would be they're right there doing the same work, and then having additional responsibilities as well. I've never been in a Starbucks where the manager wasn't pulling shots and serving.

jmowreader (1000+ posts)       Fri Mar-21-08 07:16 AM
Response to Original message

13. Isn't "tip pooling" fairly common in the foodservice industry?

Tip pooling is where all tipped employees are required to pay in their tips, which are equally divided among all employees. This keeps restaurant owners from having to cover the spread between tip + salary and minimum wage differently for each employee. Or at all, which is the grand hope of restauranteurs-who-do-this everywhere.

You know what would REALLY suck? And what I'm afraid is actually happening here? That Starbucks is paying its shift supervisors the tipped-employee minimum wage. Obviously they're over there serving coffee--there's no way they could get out of it, not with the way foodservice establishments staff these days. If they're serving coffee in an establishment that allows tipping, they're getting tips. You know they are. How would YOU like to be a shift supervisor for, essentially, minimum wage plus whatever you could squeeze out of the clientele?

LostinVA  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 10:00 AM
Response to Reply #13
 
18. Starbucks pays several dollars above the minimum non-tipped employee wage as starting pay

pitohui  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 12:14 PM
Response to Reply #13

24. no you don't tip out managers!

big difference between tipping out the bartender who fixes your drinks and the bus person who clears your table -- and tipping out the supervisor who is setting vacations, schedules, making your performance rankings and so on

if you have to tip out a supervisor it's going to lead to corruption and work place politics bullshit, it can't help but do so

and in the case of starbucks, since only idiots tip for going to a counter and getting their own damn coffee, no one is getting a restaurant's min. wage of around $2-plus an hour, as another poster said, the base pay is not the min. (nor do i think it should be the min), but the point is the tips are not much to begin with and to have them taken away and split with managers too...just ugh

Phoebe Loosinhouse  (1000+ posts)       Fri Mar-21-08 10:15 AM
Response to Original message

19. Shift supervisors

Every time I drive by a fast food place, it has a sign announcing that they are now hiring "managers".

Often, in food service, a management title is bestowed on someone because that allows the to work up to 45hrs a week with no overtime. They might get a little more hourly, but they probably would have been better off if they didn't have the fake "management" title.

I don't know, but I bet the shift supervisors got a title and a different name badge but did essentially the same work as every grunt barista. The ONLY reason to be a shift supervisor would be if you also got a cut of the tips.

Now, if they are back room managers who play on their computers all day answering countless corporate emails from headquarters demanding to know how many coffee beans fell on the floor that week, that would be a different story. They would have no claim to any tips. Anyone who has not worked for a corporate food company has no idea how tiresome they are. I guess the good news is maybe this will cause them to rethink some of their policies.

LostinVA  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 11:02 AM
Response to Reply #19
 
21. Shift supervisors do the same work as baristas

They might direct things a bit, but they don't do any real managing. Also, just because somebody is a shift supervisor, doesn't mean they'll be a shift supervisor for every shift they work.

pitohui  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 12:10 PM
Response to Reply #21

23. really then who is managing?

i don't buy that no one is on site at all times managing the job, and that person doing the hands-on front-line managing is the shift supervisor

i don't think it's too much to expect managers to pitch in and help out when the place is busy

i've had managers pitch in and help out when i waited tables, no way did they expect to grab my tips when they did

their benefits come from their profit sharing or other bonus they receive from having a well run restaurant, something i as a waiter never received

lumberjack_jeff  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 12:50 PM
Response to Reply #21

25. Doing many of the same tasks isn't the issue.

If one of the employees is told to direct the activities of the others, then (s)he's the manager.

If the issue is that the manager will make less than the managee if they don't get the tips, a bright person with a calculator and the authority to give raises could probably find a solution.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The squirrel speaks much truth...

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad8DUB0XkJA[/youtube]

[Ralph Wiggum]

Seems like they sure know a lot about Starbucks.

[Chris_]

LostinVA  (1000+ posts)      Fri Mar-21-08 09:59 AM
Response to Reply #11

17. Without shift supervisors getting tips, the regular workers will now make more than them

I'd rather have less responsibility for more pay, personally.

Color me shocked. 

[VivisMom]

The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me. For people always bitching about the economy, they sure spend a lot of $$$ on expensive coffee.

I'll state this before I go off: I used to be the asst. manager of one of the top Starbucks stores in our region. I did everything that everyone else did, except that 1) I could not get tips and 2) I didn't get paid overtime. I did get paid sick/vacation, and comp time.

Shift supervisors are managers. They have the codes for the safe, are responsible for making daily deposits, ensuring that all tills start with the correct amount of money and up with the same amount at the end of the day, making sure that everyone on their shift gets their federally mandated breaks, and are responsible for opening/closing the store. They are managers, and as such make more money than a regular barista. There is no way that a shift super is making the same as a barista. When I worked there (many moons ago) the baristas started at between 7 and 8 bucks an hour; our best paid shift super made over $12.

What I really want to know is...how can they afford a $5 latte in this horrible Bush economy? 

[CactusCarlos]

Phoebe Loosinhouse  (1000+ posts)       Fri Mar-21-08 10:15 AM
Response to Original message

19. Shift supervisors

Every time I drive by a fast food place, it has a sign announcing that they are now hiring "managers".

Remember that the next time the DUmmies start whining about the jobless.