SEATTLE Starbucks Corp. has agreed to pay $85,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed in 2006 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after the company fired a Seattle barista with bipolar disorder.
Starbucks did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. A spokeswoman for the 13,000-unit coffee shop chain said the company settled the case out of court to avoid further time and expense spent on litigation for both parties.
The EEOC reported Wednesday that Starbucks gave Christine Drake extra training and support while she worked as a barista in Seattle’s Queen Anne-neighborhood coffee shop for more than two years, starting in 2001. But in her third year, new management at the coffee shop discontinued the extra support and then fired her, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the EEOC alleged.
Starbucks agreed to pay Drake $75,000 and give $10,000 to the Disability Rights Legal Center, which provides lawyers for low-income disabled people facing discrimination. Starbucks will also train managers about illegal discrimination and will give the EEOC information about disability discrimination complaints inside the company for the next year, the commission said.
The Starbucks spokeswoman said the chain’s workplace policies provide for equal employment opportunities and strictly prohibits discrimination or harassment of any kind.