Starbucks wins dismissal of lawsuit
Starbucks Corp has recently won dismissal of a 2008 lawsuit by former assistant store managers in New York who accused the world's largest coffee chain of cheating them out of customer tips.
US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said the plaintiffs failed to show that they had a right to share in money left in the plexiglass cube containers, known as tip boxes, that Starbucks (below left) places beside cash registers.
She also said the plaintiffs did not support their claim that Seattle-based Starbucks coerced or else required them to put into the boxes the tips that customers left them personally. According to the opinion, Starbucks' written policy on tips lets baristas and shift supervisors - who are typically part-time hourly workers - handle and receive tip box proceeds, while store managers and assistant store managers do not handle tips. Reute