Starbucks Has Discriminated Against Older Workers in Attempt to Cultivate Younger Workforce, Class Action Alleges

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Starbucks faces a proposed class action lawsuit that alleges the coffee giant has systematically and discriminatorily favored younger job applicants at the expense of older individuals as a means to “eliminate and terminate as many of its older workers as possible” and reduce the overall age of its workforce. 

The 33-page case in Georgia alleges that individuals 40 years old and older are rarely offered Starbucks store manager positions, regardless of whether they apply from within the company as a current employee or externally. The lawsuit alleges Starbucks has “disturbingly” fired a high percentage of its workers over the age of 40, including many who had long careers with the company and no history of written disciplinary action. 

According to the filing, Starbucks has hidden its goal of reducing the age of its workforce “under the auspices” of The 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, a program whose founding members include FedEX, Walmart and Lyft and whose mission is to provide jobs to 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school and out of work. Broadly, Starbucks has, since 2015, engaged in a pattern of terminating older workers while failing to provide them with the same progressive disciplinary policies and practices afforded to younger employees, the suit claims. The filing alleges Starbucks has in place a de facto policy of hiring younger managers, and does not give any real consideration to employees and applicants over age 40 for managerial positions. 

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff, a 59-year-old Fulton County, Florida resident who was employed by Starbucks as a store manager until his termination in July 2021, was replaced by a younger store manager believed to be under age 40. Per the case, the plaintiff was terminated by his district manager, who the suit says was believed to be in her 30s and had been promoted to the position after working in a store manager position for only three years. The lawsuit alleges the plaintiff was never given an opportunity to interview for the district manager position when it was open in 2019, even though he had also been a store manager for three years. Prior to his termination, the plaintiff was never formally written up or disciplined for any reason, the suit says. 

The case alleges the plaintiff was given no opportunity to engage management about the alleged misconduct behind his termination, namely an accusation from his superior that the plaintiff himself was discriminatory, and was “instead handed a ‘death sentence’ of termination” immediately despite years of sufficient performance. 

“The reasons for Plaintiffs [sic] termination were a pretext for unlawful discrimination, based upon Defendant’s intention, policies and practices to find reasons to terminate older workers, to scrutinize on different standards than non older workers, and to not provide them equal treatment under and according to Starbucks’ progressive disciplinary policies and procedures,” the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons over the age of 40 who were previously employed by Starbucks in Georgia and whose employment with Starbucks in the positions of store manager or another managerial or supervisory role was terminated at any time from November 4, 2019 through the present, and who were denied promotions or open and posted positions within the company. 

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