No food service employee is immune to the end-of-shift scramble for nickels and dimes left in the tip jar. But a group of Starbucks baristas in New York are arguing that shift supervisors shouldn’t be putting their hands in the cookie jar, so to speak.
No food service employee is immune to the end-of-shift scramble for nickels and dimes left in the tip jar. But a group of Starbucks baristas in New York are arguing that shift supervisors shouldn’t be putting their hands in the cookie jar, so to speak.
Two lawsuits were filed; one by the baristas and one by the assistant managers. Both wanted to ensure a cut of the goods. “This is not a fight between baristas and shift supervisors,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan, attorney for the baristas. “It’s a fight between baristas and Starbucks . . . Why employers want to spread tip pools around is to lower their labour costs.”
The Court of Appeals ruled that as part-time, hourly employees, shift supervisors should be given a cut of the tips. Assistant managers were effectively denied from getting a share, seeing as they get a full-time salary with benefits.