Court knocks over cup of wealth for Starbucks' baristas

SAN DIEGO
June 3, 2009 5:29am

Starbucks baristas have to share their tip jars with their shift supervisors because “there is no decisional or statutory authority prohibiting an employer from allowing a service employee to keep a portion of the collective tip, in proportion to the amount of hours worked, merely because the employee also has limited supervisory duties,” says a ruling by the California 4th District Court of Appeal.

A San Diego County Superior Court ruling had held that Starbucks’ shift supervisors were not eligible to share in the communal tips and had awarded the class of humble baristas $86 million in restitution.

That award is gone like the last sip of a mocha.

Shift supervisors are part-time hourly employees who perform all the duties of a barista, but are also responsible for some additional tasks, including supervising and coordinating employees within the store, opening and closing the store, and depositing money into the safe, the ruling from the ruling explains.

The appellate court says each Starbucks customer is served by a customer service "team," rather than by an individual employee with the team consisting of one or more baristas and one or more shift supervisors. Shift supervisors spend more than 90 percent of their time performing the same service tasks as do the baristas, notes the court.

“Customers intend that their tips placed in the collective tip boxes collectively reward all … service employees,” the ruling says. “Starbucks's manner of dividing the collective tip boxes among the service employees (based on the time worked by each employee) is fair and equitable.”