San Jose, CA: An employment class action lawsuit has been filed against Starbucks in Santa Clara Superior Court, entitled Cooper v. Starbucks Corporation, Case No. 111-CV-201544.
The class action complaint filed against Starbucks alleges that Starbucks, "systematically failed to record and pay [Barista's] for minimum wages, wages for all hours worked and overtime wages," in violation of California overtime laws. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Starbucks intentionally and unlawfully failed to pay the Barista's for compensable training time which was spent reviewing, memorizing and completing Starbucks' training materials.
Under California overtime laws, employers are required to pay employees overtime compensation for all hours worked in excess of eight hours in a single workday or forty hours in a workweek. The law requires California companies to pay hourly employees for all mandatory training time. When employees are required to take quizzes off the clock by an employer, under the state wage and hour laws, they are still entitled to receive compensation for the full amount of time it takes to complete the quiz or other training activity.
